Abstract: In a voice coding apparatus of a voice communication system, feature parameters of background noise in background noise sections of an input signal stream are extracted and background noise is encoded into a comfortable-noise code, and embedding positions where additional information is to be embedded are determined according to the values of the extracted feature parameters. Additional information is embedded into the embedding positions thus determined of the voice or comfortable-noise code, which will be transmitted to a voice decoding apparatus in the system. In the decoding apparatus, the transmitted code is separated into voice and background noise sections to be decoded. From the background noise sections, the values of the feature parameters are found out and used to reference a correspondence relationship table to determine the embedding positions where the additional information is embedded. The additional information is extracted at the embedding positions thus determined to be restored.

Abstract: An electromagnetic relay includes a contact including a movable spring having a base end fixed to a bottom of a housing and a tip end provided with a movable contact, and a fixed spring having a base end fixed to the bottom of the housing and a tip end provided with a fixed contact. The movable contact is provided opposite to the fixed contact so as to come in contact with the fixed contact or move away therefrom. The housing has a protrusion protruding toward a side of the fixed contact opposite to a side facing the movable contact.

Abstract: A voice signal processor detects background noise sections to reflect characteristics of the background noise on the Wiener filter coefficient to be used for suppressing noise components of input voice signals. In the voice signal processor, directivity signal generators form directivity signals having a directivity pattern. The directivity signals are used by a coherence calculator to obtain coherence, which is in turn used by a targeted voice section detector to detect a targeted voice section. A background noise section detector detects background noise sections containing no voice signal. When a background noise section is detected, a WF adapter uses characteristics of background noise in the detected temporal section to calculate a new WF coefficient.

Abstract: An automatic gain control apparatus can prevent jumps in the gain coefficient when the gain coefficient is altered, due to a sharp change in the level of the received signal before and after the alteration. The apparatus includes a mean square circuit for processing the received signal, a gain coefficient generating circuit for generating a gain coefficient, a decision circuit for deciding whether the received level of the received signal has changed, and a control circuit for, when a change in the received level of the received signal is detected, determining a number of mean square values and a generating interval. The apparatus further includes a gain coefficient linear smoother for altering the gain coefficient over an interval, and a multiplier for multiplying the received signal by the gain coefficient obtained from the gain coefficient linear smoother.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a color removing unit, a determining unit, and a preventing unit. The color removing unit is configured to remove a specified color from an input image. The determining unit is configured to determine whether information is embedded in the input image. The preventing unit is configured to prevent an image in an area where the information is embedded in the input image from being removed by the color removing unit when the determining unit determines that the information is embedded in the input image.

Abstract: The information recording medium 3 comprises an information layer having a metal layer 5 on a substrate 4, wherein concavo-convex portion is formed in the substrate to give main information such as image and voice, and the metal layer contains Al, Si and M (wherein M is at least one element selected from a group consisting of Cr and Ni) and enables sub-information to be additionally recorded therein at low cost by laser-beam 7 irradiation.

Abstract: Disclosed is an Escherichia coli producing 2-deoxy-scyllo-inosose (DOI), which, from a sucrose non-PTS gene group, has at least a sucrose hydrolase (CscA)-encoding gene and which is provided with a DOI production system or has an enhanced DOI production system. The Escherichia coli preferably further includes a system to enhance sugar uptake capacity. There is also disclosed a method of producing DOI from a plant-derived raw material containing sucrose by using the Escherichia coli.

Abstract: The present invention provides: a lactic acid-producing Escherichia coli including an enzymatic activity of at least one NAD-dependent lactate dehydrogenase and an enzymatic activity of at least one NAD-independent lactate oxidoreductase, both of which are enhanced so as to decompose one of D-lactic acid or L-lactic acid and to produce the other one of D-lactic acid or L-lactic acid; and a lactic acid production method using the lactic acid-producing Escherichia coli.

Abstract: The present invention provides: a lactic acid-producing Escherichia coli comprising at least one gene of a sucrose non-PTS gene group, including at least a sucrose hydrolase gene, provided that a combination of a repressor protein (cscR), a sucrose hydrolase (cscA), a fructokinase (cscK) and a sucrose permease (cscB) and a combination of a sucrose hydrolase (cscA), a fructokinase (cscK) and a sucrose permease (cscB) are excluded, wherein the lactic acid-producing Escherichia coli comprises a lactic acid production enhancing system provided by genetic recombination; and a lactic acid production method including producing lactic acid from a plant-derived sucrose-containing raw material by using the lactic acid-producing Escherichia coli.

Abstract: The invention provides: yeast having cellulose degradation ability that degrades cellulose outside the cell and glucose accumulation ability that accumulates, in a reaction liquid, glucose produced from cellulose as a result of the cellulose degradation ability, when the yeast was brought into contact with cellulose in the reaction liquid; and a method for producing glucose, wherein the glucose is produced from cellulose, the method comprising the step of bringing the yeast into contact with cellulose in a reaction liquid and the step of separating and collecting, from the reaction liquid, glucose accumulated in the reaction liquid as a result of the contact of the yeast with the cellulose.

Abstract: There is provided a sound collecting device, including: an orientation direction forming section that forms an orientation direction of a microphone array; and a control section that, when a characteristic in a frequency band of a synthesized signal obtained by synthesizing the acoustic signals corresponds to a characteristic of an acoustic signal corresponding to a sound other than a target sound, controls the orientation direction forming section such that an orientation direction that is a direction that is different than an orientation direction of the microphone array at a present point in time is formed, and, when the characteristic in the frequency band of the synthesized signal does not correspond to a characteristic of an acoustic signal corresponding to a sound other than the target sound, controls the orientation direction forming section such that the orientation direction of the microphone array is maintained.

Abstract: This invention provides an image forming apparatus, control method therefor, and program for executing efficient image formation while ensuring user friendliness. To accomplish this, the image forming apparatus according to this invention permits changing an image forming condition during execution of an operation of forming an image while conveying a plurality of sheets each on which the image is to be formed at the first interval, and restricts changing the image forming condition during execution of the operation of forming an image while conveying the plurality of sheets at the second interval shorter than the first interval.

Abstract: In a telephone device, a near-end signal processor delays each input near-end signal delivered from the respective microphones by a delay amount, and synthesizes the input near-end signals into a synthesized near-end signal. In an echo canceller, mounted on board the telephone device, a far-end signal is delayed by the same delay amounts as used in the near-end signal processor to form plural delayed far-end signals, which are synthesized into a synthesized far-end signal, with which the echo component in the synthesized near-end signal will be suppressed.

Abstract: Because conditions for recording identification data of a medium vary in accordance with the structure of different media, such as a single-layer or a multiple-layer structure, stable data recording has been a difficult task. To solve this problem, an incident side of the laser beam for recording identification data on a single-layer optical disk 5 and a double-layer optical disk 6 is the opposite side of a substrate 1 upon which user data is recorded. From this structure, even in a double-layer optical disk 6, the recording is not affected by the recording layer of a second layer 12b and the like. Therefore, in the double-layer optical disk 6, identification data of the medium can be recorded under the same conditions as the single-layer optical disk 5.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a color removing unit, a determining unit, and a preventing unit. The color removing unit is configured to remove a specified color from an input image. The determining unit is configured to determine whether information is embedded in the input image. The preventing unit is configured to prevent an image in an area where the information is embedded in the input image from being removed by the color removing unit when the determining unit determines that the information is embedded in the input image.

Abstract: An automatic gain control apparatus that can prevent jumps in the gain coefficient when the gain coefficient is altered, due to a sharp change in the level of the received signal before and after the alteration, having a mean square circuit (11) for performing mean square processing on the received signal over prescribed sampling intervals, a memory (2) for storing the mean square values, a gain coefficient generating circuit (3) for generating a gain coefficient at predetermined generating intervals by dividing a preset reference output level by a mean value of a predetermined number of the mean square values, a decision circuit (5) for deciding whether the received level of the received signal has changed, a control circuit (6) for, when a change in the received level of the received signal is detected, determining the number of mean square values and the generating interval, a gain coefficient linear smoother (8) for altering the gain coefficient over an interval between the gain coefficients received from

Abstract: A communication system 100 connects a plurality of terminals and the communication control unit 101 via a network 110. A group information table 203 of the communication control unit 101 has a that stores identification information of terminal belonging to a group capable of refusing receipts of information transmitted from an originator's terminal relative to identification information of that group and stores identification information of the originator's terminal relative to identification information of the group. A collation judging section 205 judges whether to refuse the receipt from the originator's terminal by collating whether the originator's terminal is registered relative to the group to which the recipient's terminal belongs by using the group information table 203. A communication control section 201 stops or connects the communication between the originator's terminal and the recipient's terminal to refuse or allow the receipt based on the judgment result.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus and a control method thereof configured to input PDL data and render the PDL data into image data to form an image, wherein a rendering speed in rendering the PDL data into the image data and an image forming speed are changeable, and by changing the rendering speed and the image forming speed within a predetermined power consumption, suppresses degradation in image forming speed. When an amount of rendered and stored image data yet to be used for image forming equals or exceeds a first threshold, the speed of an image data rendering process is reduced while image forming speed is increased. Conversely, when the amount of rendered and stored image data yet to be used for image forming equals or falls below a second threshold, the speed of an image data rendering process is increased while image forming speed is reduced.

Abstract: In a printing system capable of supplying a sheet of a job having undergone print processing by the printing unit of a printing apparatus to a post-processing unit capable of executing at least a specific type of post-processing among a plurality of types of post-processes, when the target job requires the specific type of post-processing, the printing apparatus is inhibited from executing print processing of the job without explicitly determining a sheet necessary for the print processing of the job by a user using a user interface unit. When the target job does not require the specific type of post-processing, the printing apparatus is permitted to execute print processing of the job without explicitly determining a sheet necessary for the print processing of the job by the user using the user interface unit.

Abstract: An apparatus (e.g. MFP) calculates the feature amount of a query image. The similarity between the feature amount of each image stored in a storage device and the feature amount of the query image is calculated, thereby obtaining a plurality of candidate images similar to the query image. The display order of the plurality of candidate images is determined on the basis of the job log (log data of processes executed in the past) of a device selected as a reference target.