Abstract: The disclosed computer-implemented method for performing natural language translation in AR may include accessing an audio input stream that includes words spoken by a speaking user in a first language. The method may next include performing active noise cancellation on the words in the audio input stream so that the spoken words are suppressed before reaching a listening user. Still further, the method may include processing the audio input stream to identify the words spoken by the speaking user, and translating the identified words spoken by the speaking user into a second, different language. The method may also include generating spoken words in the second, different language using the translated words, and replaying the generated spoken words in the second language to the listening user. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Abstract: The disclosed computer-implemented method may include applying, via a sound reproduction system, sound cancellation that reduces an amplitude of various sound signals. The method further includes identifying, among the sound signals, an external sound whose amplitude is to be reduced by the sound cancellation. The method then includes analyzing the identified external sound to determine whether the identified external sound is to be made audible to a user and, upon determining that the external sound is to be made audible to the user, the method includes modifying the sound cancellation so that the identified external sound is made audible to the user. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Abstract: The disclosed computer-implemented method may include establishing and implementing a virtual microphone. The method may include receiving an input specifying a location for a virtual microphone that is configured to capture audio as if located in the specified location. The method may next include initializing physical microphones to begin capturing audio as if located at the specified location. The physical microphones may be electronically or physically oriented to listen from the specified location. The method may then include combining audio streams from the physical microphones to generate a combined audio signal that sounds as if recorded at the specified location. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Abstract: A system performs an optimization algorithm to optimize two or more acoustic sensors of a microphone array. The system obtains an array transfer function (ATF) for a plurality of combinations of the acoustic sensors of the microphone array. In a first embodiment, the algorithm optimizes an active set of acoustic sensors on the eyewear device. The plurality of combinations may be all possible combinations of subsets of the acoustic sensors that may be active. In a second embodiment, the algorithm optimizes a placement of two or more acoustic sensors on an eyewear device during manufacturing of the eyewear device. Each combination of acoustic sensors may represent a different arrangement of the acoustic sensors in the microphone array. In each embodiment, the system evaluates the obtained ATFs and, based on the evaluation, selects a combination of acoustic sensors for the microphone array.

Abstract: Techniques are described for performing dependency locking to enable parallel execution of database server processes modifying the same object. In an embodiment, a DBMS receives a request to execute an operation on its managed database. The request may include an object identifier and a version identifier for a version of a database object, which is required for the successful execution of the operation on the database. The required version of the database object may not exist and may be generated only after the execution of another, second, operation on the database. The first database server process initiates execution of the earlier received operation on the database. The first database server process queries the first database for the version of the particular database object and determines that the version of the database object does not exist yet, in one embodiment.

Abstract: A mud pump with components manufactured from high strength and toughness steel is disclosed. The mud pump includes a power end and a fluid end. The power end includes a motor, crankshaft rotationally engaged with the motor and a connecting rod rotationally engaged with the crank shaft. The fluid end is operatively connected to the power end and includes a piston, a cylinder configured to operatively engage the plunger, and a drilling fluid module. The crankshaft, the connecting rod, the piston, and the cylinder may each be fabricated from a high strength and toughness steel composition having the following composition in weight percent: 0.25-0.55% carbon, 0.70-1.50% manganese, a maximum of 0.80% silicon, 1.40-2.00% chromium, 0.10-0.55% molybdenum, a maximum of 0.040% aluminum, a maximum of 0.025% phosphorous, a maximum of 0.20% sulfur, a balance of iron, and incidental impurities.

Abstract: A backpack having a modifiable display. The backpack may include an active element arranged on an outer surface of the backpack, a power supply arranged on the backpack, and a controller arranged on the backpack and in electrical communication with the power supply and the active element. In some embodiments, the active element may include one or more drivers. The one or more drivers may be coated in a sealant, such as a rubber sealant. The active element may be a flexible display configured to display, such as an LED, LCD, OLED, AM-OLED, or EPD display. In some embodiments, the backpack may be part of a self-expression kit, and the modifiable display may be removable and configured for coupling to other surfaces. In some embodiments, the backpack may be part of an advertising network having a plurality of wearable articles and a digital marketplace for advertising opportunities.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing a cartilage conduction audio device is disclosed. A manufacturing system receives data describing a three-dimensional shape of an ear (e.g., the outer ear, behind the ear, the concha bowel, etc.) of a user. The system identifies one or more locations for one or more transducers along a back of an auricle of the ear for the user that vibrate the auricle over a frequency range causing the auricle to create an acoustic pressure wave at an entrance of the ear canal. The system then generates a design for a cartilage conduction audio device for the user based on the one or more identified locations of the transducers at which acoustic pressure waves generated by the one or more transducers satisfy a threshold performance metric for the user. The design may then be used to fabricate the cartilage conduction audio device.

Abstract: The disclosed computer-implemented method for performing directional beamforming according to an anticipated position may include accessing environment data indicating a sound source within an environment. The device may include various audio hardware components configured to generate steerable audio beams. The method may also include identifying the location of the sound source within the environment based on the accessed environment data, and then steering the audio beams of the device to the identified location of the sound source within the environment. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Abstract: The disclosed computer-implemented method may include (1) establishing a communication channel to indirectly convey a conversation, (2) receiving, via the communication channel, a portion of the conversation, (3) presenting the portion of the conversation to a user, (4) receiving, via the communication channel, an additional portion of the conversation, (5) detecting an additional communication channel capable of conveying the conversation, (6) determining a human-perceivable difference between how the conversation has been conveyed via the communication channel and how the conversation will be conveyed via the additional communication channel, and (7) compensating for the human-perceivable difference when presenting the additional portion of the conversation to the user in order to smoothly transition the conversation from the communication channel to the additional communication channel. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Abstract: Presented herein are systems and methods for question answering (QA). In embodiments, extractive question answering (QA) is cast as an iterative search problem through the document's structure: select the answer's sentence, start word, and end word. This representation reduces the space of each search step and allows computation to be conditionally allocated to promising search paths. In embodiments, globally normalizing the decision process and back-propagating through beam search makes this representation viable and learning efficient. Various model embodiments, referred to as Globally Normalized Readers (GNR), achieve excellent performance. Also introduced are embodiments of data-augmentation to produce semantically valid examples by aligning named entities to a knowledge base and performing swaps new entities of the same type. This methodology also improved the performance of GNR models and is of independent interest for a variety of natural language processing (NLP) tasks.

Abstract: The present disclosure features compounds such as those having the Formulae (I) and (II), which can increase cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) activity as measured in human bronchial epithelial (hBE) cells. The present disclosure also features methods of treating a condition associated with decreased CFTR activity or a condition associated with a dysfunction of proteostasis comprising administering to a subject an effective amount of a disclosed compound, such as a compound of Formula (I) or (II).

Abstract: An air conditioning appliance having a safety device. The safety device preferably communicates with at least one sensor that is configured to detect an undesirable condition. If an undesirable condition is detected, then the operation of the air conditioning appliance can be modified as needed for safety.

Abstract: A multi-mode ring scanner (MMRS) has a ring unit for wearing on a finger. The MMRS optionally has a wrist unit coupled to the ring unit, such as via a cable. The MMRS optionally communicates wirelessly with a computing device. The ring unit has one or more scanners (such as an optical scanner or an RFID tag reader). The ring unit optionally has two paddle switches for activation by inward pressure from fingers adjacent to the finger. The two switches enable specifying operation of the MMRS in a plurality of modes and/or to communicate a plurality of information codes to the computing device. The computing device is optionally enabled to assign a function to each combination of activation of the two switches. A scanning system including the MMRS optionally provides feedback to a user based on feedback from a host processor.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a reverse transfer method of forming a multi-layered roofing membrane composite that includes a release liner, a polyurethane pressure sensitive adhesive layer, and a single-ply roofing membrane. The disclosed methods include coating either a release liner or a single ply membrane with the pressure sensitive adhesive layer to form a composite roll for transport.

Abstract: An eyewear device includes an audio system. In one embodiment, the audio system includes a microphone array that includes a plurality of acoustic sensors. Each acoustic sensor is configured to detect sounds within a local area surrounding the microphone array. For a plurality of the detected sounds, the audio system performs a direction of arrival (DoA) estimation. Based on parameters of the detected sound and/or the DoA estimation, the audio system may then generate or update one or more acoustic transfer functions unique to a user. The audio system may use the one or more acoustic transfer functions to generate audio content for the user.

Abstract: The disclosure features methods and systems that include: obtaining an input image of an imaging subject, where the input image is a color image featuring, in each of multiple color channels, a first set of pixel intensity values; for each one of the multiple color channels, determining a measured contrast value and a measured brightness value from the first set of pixel intensity values for the color channel, determining a contrast ratio for the color channel based on a target contrast value for the color channel and the measured contrast value for the color channel, and generating a second set of pixel intensity values for the color channel; and generating an output image of the imaging subject based on the second sets of pixel intensity values for each of the multiple color channels.

Abstract: A listening device includes a reference microphone positioned outside a blocked ear canal of a user to receive environmental sounds and generate first signals based on the environmental sounds. A loudspeaker is coupled to the reference microphone and positioned inside the ear canal to generate internal sounds based on the first signals. An internal microphone is positioned inside the ear canal to receive the internal sounds from the loudspeaker and generate second signals based on the internal sounds. A controller is coupled to the internal microphone and the reference microphone to compute a transfer function based on the first signals and the second signals. The transfer function describes a variation between the environmental sounds and the internal sounds caused by the listening device blocking the ear canal. The controller adjusts, based on the transfer function, the internal sounds to mitigate the variation.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing a cartilage conduction audio device is disclosed. A manufacturing system receives data describing a three-dimensional shape of an ear (e.g., the outer ear, behind the ear, the concha bowel, etc.) of a user. The system identifies one or more locations for one or more transducers along a back of an auricle of the ear for the user that vibrate the auricle over a frequency range causing the auricle to create an acoustic pressure wave at an entrance of the ear canal. The system then generates a design for a cartilage conduction audio device for the user based on the one or more identified locations of the transducers at which acoustic pressure waves generated by the one or more transducers satisfy a threshold performance metric for the user. The design may then be used to fabricate the cartilage conduction audio device.

Abstract: A microphone can include a cover having a series of slits and a nest. The nest can be configured to receive a first diaphragm, a second diaphragm, and a PCB in a stacked arrangement, such that the PCB is positioned between the first diaphragm and the second diaphragm. Also the first diaphragm can define a first plane, the second diaphragm can define a second plane, and the PCB can define a third plane and the first plane, the second plane, and the third plane can extend parallel to one another. The cover can also include slits having a first length and a second length, and the first length can be greater than the second length. The slits can extend both radially and axially.