Abstract: A single capacitor (C) can be used for both readout and noise reduction in an imaging sensor. This dual-purpose use of the single capacitor is facilitated by a switching arrangement (&PHgr;1-&PHgr;5) which connects the capacitor to a low impedance node (n7, n41) during charge storage. The low impedance node is also used to drive a column readout line (Vout).

Abstract: The pixels of an image sensor array can be readout (84, 85) in m×n blocks (m, n) that are compatible with the operation of a desired image compression algorithm (14), thereby reducing the amount of memory required by the image compression algorithm.

Abstract: A CMOS area array sensor with reduced fixed pattern noise. Device threshold voltage variations are minimied using a Sequential Correlated Double Sampling technique in a column circuitry.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method for imaging the mouth area laterally to produce reliable measurements of mouth and lip shapes for use in assisting the speech recognition task. A video camera is arranged with a headset and a microphone to capture a lateral profile image of a speaker. The lateral profile image is then used to compute features such as lip separation, lip shape and intrusion depth parameters. The parameters are used in real time, during speech recognition process to characterize and discriminate spoken phonemes to produce a high degree of accuracy in automatic speech recognition processing, especially in a noisy environment.

Abstract: Phonetic Chinese (Pinyin and BPMF) is entered into a computer system and accurately converted into the Hanzi form. The system has a novel keyboard with diacritic keys (and corresponding ASCII coding) that permit the user to annotate each entered phonetic text syllable with a diacritic that indicates the tone of the syllable. A process executing on the system determines that a syllable has been entered when a diacritic (or delimiter) key is struck. An entered phonetic syllable is then compared to a list of acceptable phonetic syllables and abbreviations. If the entered syllable is on the list, the correctly spelled and accented syllable is stored in memory and displayed on a phonetic portion of a graphical display. The process continues for succeeding syllables until a delimiter is entered.

Abstract: In a speech recognition system which recognizes a spoken utterance consisting of a sequence of spoken words and, in response, outputs a sequence of decoded words, a method for automatically punctuating the sequence of decoded words is provided. In a vocabulary of items including words, silences, and punctuation marks, assigning at least one baseform to each punctuation mark corresponding to one of silence and a non-word noise. Additionally, the method includes the step of automatically inserting a subject punctuation mark at a given point in the sequence of decoded words when an acoustic score and a language model score associated with the subject punctuation mark produce a higher combined likelihood than the acoustic score and the language model score associated with any other item in the vocabulary for the given point in the sequence of decoded words.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for extracting pitch value information from speech. The method selects at least three highest peaks from a normalized autocorrelation function and produces a plurality of frequency candidates for pitch value determination. The plurality of frequency candidates are used to identify anchor points in pitch values, and is further used to perform both forward and backward searching when an anchor point cannot be readily identified. The running mean or average of determined pitch values is maintained and used in conjunction with the identified valid pitch values in a final determination of the pitch estimation using a weighted least squares fit for identified non-valid frames.

Abstract: Phonetic Chinese (Pinyin and BPMF) is entered into a computer system and accurately converted into the Hanzi form. The system has a novel keyboard with diacritic keys (and corresponding ASCII coding) that permit the user to annotate each entered phonetic text syllable with a diacritic that indicates the tone of the syllable. A process executing on the system determines that a syllable has been entered when a diacritic (or delimiter) key is struck. An entered phonetic syllable is then compared to a list of acceptable phonetic syllables and abbreviations. If the entered syllable is on the list, the correctly spelled and accented syllable is stored in memory and displayed on a phonetic portion of a graphical display. The process continues for succeeding syllables until a delimiter is entered.

Abstract: Phonetic Chinese (Pinyin and BPMF) is entered into a computer system and accurately converted into the Hanzi form. The system has a keyboard with diacritic keys (and corresponding ASCII coding) that permit the user to annotate each entered phonetic text syllable with a diacritic that indicates the tone of the syllable. A process executing on the system determines that a syllable has been entered when a diacritic (or delimiter) key is struck. An entered phonetic syllable is then compared to a list of acceptable phonetic syllables and abbreviations. If the entered syllable is on the list, the correctly spelled and accented syllable is stored in memory and displayed on a phonetic portion of a graphical display. The process continues for succeeding syllables until a delimiter is entered.

Abstract: A continuous speech recognition system has the ability to correct errors in strings of words. The error correction method stores data in the system's internal state to update probability tables used in developing alternative lists for substitution in misrecognized text.

Abstract: An automatic segmenter for continuous text segments such text in a rapid, consistent and semantically accurate manner. Two statistical methods for segmentation of continuous text are used. The first method, called "forward-backward matching", is easy and fast but can produce occasional errors in long phrases. The second method, called "statistical stack search segmenter", utilizes statistical language models to generate more accurate segmentation output at an expense of two times more execution time than the "forward-backward matching" method. In some applications where speed is a major concern, "forward-backward matching" can be used, while in other applications where highly accurate output is desired, "statistical stack search segmenter" is ideal.

Abstract: A CRT touch screen having raster-generated light patterns at the viewing screen borders of a conventional CRT. Reflective surfaces proximal to the screen borders reflect the light patterns across the CRT surface to external photodetectors. Modulating the horizontal blanking signal or employing periodic non-reflective patterns on the reflective surfaces effects raster-generated light patterns having a unique time frequency higher than the vertical synch frequency, but lower than the horizontal synch frequency. A screen pointer blocks the lights patterns reflecting across the screen to two or more of the photodetectors. The blocking is time-relative to the CRT's horizontal and vertical synch signals. The photodetector outputs are bandpass filtered at the unique pattern frequency to suppress electromagnetic interference from the CRT's horizontal raster synch, the CRT's vertical synch and other electromagnetic and optical sources.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for acoustic signal processing of speech recognition, the method comprising the following components: 1) Decompose each syllable into two phonemes of comparable length and complexity, the first one being a preme, and the second one being a toneme; 2) Each toneme is assigned a tone value such as high, rising, low, falling, and untoned; 3) No tone value is assigned to premes; 4) Pitch is detected continuously and treated the same way as energy and cepstrals in a Hidden Markov Model to predict the tone of a toneme; 5) The tone of a syllable is defined as the tone of its component toneme.