Abstract: Roughly described, a natural language interpretation system develops its interpretation in response to user input, and also in dependence upon the interpretation, rather than the claims, made in response to prior input. In policy conditions, an agent can check whether any specified agent contributed to the prior interpretation and adjust its claiming of the present input accordingly. In policy actions, a policy or agent can reference the prior interpretation both for conditioning the policy's or agent's contribution to the current interpretation, and also for incorporating part or all of the prior interpretation in the policy's or agent's contribution to the current interpretation. The resulting system thus implements dialoging in a distributed manner as part of the various agents in the interpretation network, and allows much more flexibility to better respond in accordance with users' expectations.

Abstract: Shortcut names corresponding to flagged locations or frequently stated destinations, phrases, or sentences are registered, maintained, used, and deregistered in a speech recognition system. If a flagged location or a frequently stated destination, phrase, or sentence is received by the speech recognition system, the user is prompted to provide a shortcut name corresponding to the frequently stated destination, phrase, or sentence in the form of speech, which is then recognized by speech recognition and registered to a personal profile of the user. The shortcut name is also added to a grammar database of the speech recognition system, so that the speech recognition system may recognize the shortcut name itself. The shortcut name may also be deleted, when speech received from a user contains a shortcut name but the user did not intend the shortcut name to mean the corresponding destination, phrase, or sentence.

Abstract: A speech recognition system recognizes an input speech signal by using a first speech recognizer and a second speech recognizer each coupled to a decision module. Each of the first and second speech recognizers outputs first and second recognized speech texts and first and second associated confidence scores, respectively, and the decision module selects either the first or the second speech text depending upon which of the first or second confidence score is higher. The decision module may also adjust the first and second confidence scores to generate first and second adjusted confidence scores, respectively, and select either the first or second speech text depending upon which of the first or second adjusted confidence scores is higher. The first and second confidence scores may be adjusted based upon the location of a speaker, the identity or accent of the speaker, the context of the speech, and the like.

Abstract: Shortcut names corresponding to flagged locations or frequently stated destinations, phrases, or sentences are registered, maintained, used, and deregistered in a speech recognition system. If a flagged location or a frequently stated destination, phrase, or sentence is received by the speech recognition system, the user is prompted to provide a shortcut name corresponding to the frequently stated destination, phrase, or sentence in the form of speech, which is then recognized by speech recognition and registered to a personal profile of the user. The shortcut name is also added to a grammar database of the speech recognition system, so that the speech recognition system may recognize the shortcut name itself. The shortcut name may also be deleted, when speech received from a user contains a shortcut name but the user did not intend the shortcut name to mean the corresponding destination, phrase, or sentence.

Abstract: There is disclosed a molding compound for making an article including a cellulose fiber, which is prepared by mixing a cellulose fiber added with at least starch, water and a long chain fatty acid salt of a non-alkali metal. There is also described a method for molding an article including a cellulose fiber by employing the above compound and, further, a mold for molding an article including a cellulose fiber with a cavity formed by a stationary side and a movable side which is used therefore.

Abstract: A process for producing a shaped article of a non-cellular or microcellular polyurethane elastomer by reaction injection molding by using at least two components of (A) a polyol component comprising a high molecular weight polyol and a chain extender as essential ingredients and (B) an isocyanate component comprising a polyisocyanate compound as essential ingredient, characterized in that substantially all or at least 80% by weight of said high molecular weight polyol is composed of a polyoxyalkylene polyol, and the polyoxyalkylene polyol is a single or mixed polyoxyalkylene polyol which has an average hydroxyl number of from 2.0 to 3.5 and an average hydroxyl value of from 15 to 60 and contains at least 5% by weight, in an average, of oxyethylene groups at the terminal portions of the oxyalkylene chain and in which the total oxyethylene group content is, in an average, less than 21% by weight and the average unsaturated monool content is at most 0.085 meq/g.