Patents by Inventor Rene Lawless

Rene Lawless has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Method and system for assessing pronunciation difficulties of non-native speakers
    Patent number: 8478597
    Abstract: The present disclosure presents a useful metric for assessing the relative difficulty which non-native speakers face in pronouncing a given utterance and a method and systems for using such a metric in the evaluation and assessment of the utterances of non-native speakers. In an embodiment, the metric may be based on both known sources of difficulty for language learners and a corpus-based measure of cross-language sound differences. The method may be applied to speakers who primarily speak a first language speaking utterances in any non-native second language.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2013
    Assignee: Educational Testing Service
    Inventors: Derrick Higgins, Klaus Zechner, Yoko Futagi, Rene Lawless
  • Method and system for assessing pronunciation difficulties of non-native speakers by entropy calculation
    Patent number: 7778834
    Abstract: The present disclosure presents a useful metric for assessing the relative difficulty which non-native speakers face in pronouncing a given utterance and a method and systems for using such a metric in the evaluation and assessment of the utterances of non-native speakers. In an embodiment, the metric may be based on both known sources of difficulty for language learners and a corpus-based measure of cross-language sound differences. The method may be applied to speakers who primarily speak a first language speaking utterances in any non-native second language.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2010
    Assignee: Educational Testing Service
    Inventors: Derrick Higgins, Klaus Zechner, Yoko Futagi, Rene Lawless
  • METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ASSESSING PRONUNCIATION DIFFICULTIES OF NON-NATIVE SPEAKERSL
    Publication number: 20080294440
    Abstract: The present disclosure presents a useful metric for assessing the relative difficulty which non-native speakers face in pronouncing a given utterance and a method and systems for using such a metric in the evaluation and assessment of the utterances of non-native speakers. In an embodiment, the metric may be based on both known sources of difficulty for language learners and a corpus-based measure of cross-language sound differences. The method may be applied to speakers who primarily speak a first language speaking utterances in any non-native second language.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2008
    Publication date: November 27, 2008
    Applicant: Educational Testing Service
    Inventors: Derrick Higgins, Klaus Zechner, Yoko Futagi, Rene Lawless
  • Method and system for assessing pronunciation difficulties of non-native speakers
    Publication number: 20060155538
    Abstract: The present disclosure presents a useful metric for assessing the relative difficulty which non-native speakers face in pronouncing a given utterance and a method and systems for using such a metric in the evaluation and assessment of the utterances of non-native speakers. In an embodiment, the metric may be based on both known sources of difficulty for language learners and a corpus-based measure of cross-language sound differences. The method may be applied to speakers who primarily speak a first language speaking utterances in any non-native second language.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 10, 2006
    Publication date: July 13, 2006
    Inventors: Derrick Higgins, Klaus Zechner, Yoko Futagi, Rene Lawless