Abstract: A text processing system for processing multi-lingual text for a speech synthesizer includes a first language dependent module for performing at least one of text and prosody analysis on a portion of input text comprising a first language. A second language dependent module performs at least one of text and prosody analysis on a second portion of input text comprising a second language. A third module is adapted to receive outputs from the first and second dependent module and performs prosodic and phonetic context abstraction over the outputs based on multi-lingual text.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for refining segmental boundaries in speech waveforms. Contextual acoustic feature similarities are used as a basis for clustering adjacent phoneme speech units, where each adjacent pair phoneme speech units include a segmental boundary. A refining model is trained for each cluster and used to refine boundaries of contextual phoneme speech units forming the clusters.

Abstract: Described is a voice persona service by which users convert text into speech waveforms, based on user-provided parameters and voice data from a service data store. The service may be remotely accessed, such as via the Internet. The user may provide text tagged with parameters, with the text sent to a text-to-speech engine along with base or custom voice data, and the resulting waveform morphed based on the tags. The user may also provide speech. Once created, a voice persona corresponding to the speech waveform may be persisted, exchanged, made public, shared and so forth. In one example, the voice persona service receives user input and parameters, and retrieves a base or custom voice that may be edited by the user via a morphing algorithm. The service outputs a waveform, such as a .wav file for embedding in a software program, and persists the voice persona corresponding to that waveform.

Abstract: The present invention provides a message energy memory ceramics. The message information memory ceramics includes: (1) a plurality of message energy memory ceramics grains composed of a silicon oxide, an aluminum oxide, a sodium oxide, a potassium oxide, a magnesium oxide, a calcium oxide, a titanium oxide, an ferric oxide, a manganese oxide, and a zinc oxide; and (2) a powder of message energy memory ceramics grains composed of a silicon oxide, an aluminum oxide, a sodium oxide, a potassium oxide, a magnesium oxide, a calcium oxide, a titanium oxide, an ferric oxide, a manganese oxide, and a zinc oxide. The products of the present invention can be applied to general water supply stations, water towers, and drinking water machines.

Abstract: A card printer includes a housing having a card outlet and a connecting element for connecting to a connecting element of a dust-proof card receiver. The dust-proof card receiver includes an opening. A vertical distance between the opening and the bottom of the housing is approximately the same as a vertical distance between the card outlet and the bottom of the housing. When cards output from the card outlet of the housing accumulate to the height of the opening and the card printer continues to output printed cards, cards subsequently output from the card printer push an upper card inside the dust-proof card receiver out from the opening of the dust-proof card receiver.

Abstract: An automated method of providing a pronunciation of a word to a remote device is disclosed. The method includes receiving an input indicative of the word to be pronounced. The method further includes searching a database having a plurality of records. Each of the records has an indication of a textual representation and an associated indication of an audible representation. At least one output is provided to the remote device of an audible representation of the word to be pronounced.

Abstract: A method for identifying common multiphone units to add to a unit inventory for a text-to-speech generator is disclosed. The common multiphone units are units that are larger than a phone, but smaller than a syllable. The method slices each syllable into a plurality of slices. These slices are then sorted and the frequency of each slice is determined. Those slices whose frequencies exceed a threshold are added to the unit inventory. The remaining slices are decomposed according to a predetermined set of rules to determine if they contain slices that should be added to the unit inventory.

Abstract: Methods are disclosed for automatic accent labeling without manually labeled data. The methods are designed to exploit accent distribution between function and content words.

Abstract: A method is provided for optimizing an objective measure used to estimate mean opinion score or naturalness of synthesized speech from a speech synthesizer. The method includes using an objective measure that has components derived directly from textual information used to form synthesized utterances. The objective measure has a high correlation with mean opinion score such that a relationship can be formed between the objective measure and corresponding mean opinion score. The objective measure is altered to provide a different function of textual information derived from the utterances so as to improve the relationship between the scores of the objective measure and subjective ratings of the synthesized utterances.

Abstract: An energy-reclamation apparatus of the present invention including at least a supercapacitor element connected with a charging source and a controlled circuit. After the supercapacitor element is charged to the potential of the charging source, the supercapacitor element and the charging source will work in series to conduct a repetitive polarity reversal of the supercapacitor element through a controlled circuit. As the supercapacitor element discharges, it is reversely charged concurrently. In other words, while the voltage of the supercapacitor element is decreasing on the side, a negative potential is complementarily developing on the other side. By repeatedly reversing the polarity of the supercapacitor element, more energy from the serially connected charging source can be reclaimed and reused.

Abstract: The language of origin of a word or named entity is predicted using estimates of frequency of occurrence of the word or named entity in different languages. In one embodiment, the normalized frequency of occurrence of the word or named entity in a variety of different languages is estimated and the values are used as features in a feature vector which is scored and used to identify language of origin.

Abstract: A concatenating speech synthesizer concatenates selected speech units to obtain the desired synthesized speech. When desired speech units of phonetic and/or prosodic context are not available, the synthesizer selects replacement speech units based on measures representative of the difference between the HMM acoustic models of the desired speech unit and available speech units.

Abstract: A card printer includes a housing, a card inlet and a card outlet. A distance between the card inlet and the bottom of the housing is approximately the same as a distance between the card outlet and the bottom of the housing. When serially connecting two similar card printers, the card outlet of the first printer is positioned corresponding to the card inlet of the second printer. Therefore, a card outputted from the card outlet of the first printer is directly inputted into the card inlet of the second printer thereby simplifying a card printing process and reducing labor.

Abstract: A stereo disparity between a reference image and a search image for a reference pixel in the reference image is determined by (a) calculating a similarity measure between a reference window including a set of pixels centering on the reference pixel and each of a group of search windows in the search image which is of a same shape with the reference window and displaced from the reference window within a predetermined search range, wherein a matching pixel count, which is the number of pixels in the reference window which are similar in intensity to corresponding pixels in a search window, is used as the similarity measure between the reference window and the search window; and (b) determining a displacement between the reference window and a search window which yields a largest similarity measure as the stereo disparity for the reference pixel.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention pertain to adaptation of a corpus-driven general-purpose TTS system to at least one specific domain. The domain adaptation is realized by adding a limited amount of domain-specific speech that provides a maximum impact on improved perceived naturalness of speech. An approach for generating optimized script for adaptation is proposed, the core of which is a dynamic programming based algorithm that segments domain-specific corpus into a minimum number of segments that appear in the unit inventory. Increases in perceived naturalness of speech after adaptation are estimated from the generated script without recording speech from it.

Abstract: An accent detection system for automatically labeling accent in a large speech corpus includes a first classifier which analyzes words in the speech corpus and automatically labels accents to provide first accent labels. A second classifier analyzes the words to automatically label accent of the words to provide second accent labels. A comparison engine compares the first and second accent labels. Accent labels that indicate agreement between the first and second classifiers are provided as final accent labels. When there is disagreement between the first and second classifiers, a third classifier analyzes the words and provides the final accent labels.

Abstract: Disclosed is a complex immuno-gene medical composition for activating NK cells to enhance a host immune system. The composition includes a plurality of cytokines, including Th1 and Th2 cytokines. Th2 cytokines antagonize TGF-? inhibiting NK cells to disable the inhibition of the immune system. Th1 cytokines activate NK cells in a host to enhance the host's ability to fight against tumor cells. By use of the complex immuno-gene medical composition, removal of tumor cells is expected.

Abstract: All pollutants dissolved or existed in water can be grossly classified as ionized and neutral species. The former includes inorganic and organic ions, while the latter contains inorganic molecules, organic molecules and organisms. Using flow through capacitor for performing capacitive deionization (CDI), the ionic contaminants can be effectively and economically removed from water. Whereas the neutral contaminants are not retained in the static electric field of CDI, they can be decomposed upon flowing through an electrolytic ozonator. Either gaseous or ionic products will be generated at the ozone treatment, and the ionic byproducts can be subsequently removed by CDI. By integrating the electrolytic ozone reactor with flow through capacitor, the O3/CDI hybrid technique becomes a total solution for eliminating hazardous materials in water.

Abstract: A plurality of supercapacitor elements is arranged in rows and columns within a single housing. The elements have no physical connection until they are configured into series, parallel or combinatory matrix by a configuration circuit composing of switches, an driver and a controller. Under the manipulation of the configuration circuit, the elements can be assembled in a broad voltage range to deliver the desired powers to automobiles, heavy machineries, power tools, appliances, or consumer electronics in real-time responses. When the loads present energy for recovery, the elements can also be immediately grouped in the voltage and capacity ranges corresponding to the power levels of the energy to be harvested. Using the present invention, the efficiency of DC and AC energy utilization can be significantly improved.

Abstract: The language of origin of a word is determined by analyzing non-uniform letter sequence portions of the word.