Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for acquiring physical-world data indicative of interactions of a subject with an avatar for evaluation. An interactive avatar is provided for interaction with the subject. Speech from the subject to the avatar is captured, and automatic speech recognition is performed to determine content of the subject speech. Motion data from the subject interacting with the avatar is captured. A next action of the interactive avatar is determined based on the content of the subject speech or the motion data. The next action of the avatar is implemented, and a score for the subject is determined based on the content of the subject speech and the motion data.

Abstract: In a switch fabric environment, which includes a buffer, packet data of different class-types from different sources is received, stored in the buffer, processed and outputted to its intended destination. As the buffer fills up, transmission from some of the data sources is stopped to avoid dropping of packets. To avoid packet loss, when the occupancy of the buffer reaches a first threshold value, further transmission of a first-class type of data is precluded from the particular source of that data then being received, while transmission from other sources of that same first-class type of data is not precluded from these other data sources until first-class type of data from such other sources is also received. Further, data of a second-class type is not precluded from being transmitted as long as the amount of data stored in the buffer remains below a second threshold, which is greater than the first threshold.