Abstract: A multi-channel telephone data collection, collaboration and conferencing system for use with a plurality of telephone channels, the telephone channels being interconnected to facilitate a conference call between a plurality of telephone conferencing devices, the system comprising: a call processor having at least two telephone conferencing device input/output ports connected to the processor and to the plurality of telephone conferencing devices, the call processor generates an audio signal corresponding to each of the plurality of telephone conferencing devices connected to the telephone input/output ports; an audio saving module, connected to the call processor, that converts the audio signal corresponding to each of the plurality of telephone conferencing devices to a digital signal; a memory device that stores the digital signals corresponding to each conference device; an audio switch, connected to the call processor and the memory device, that has a plurality of audio inputs corresponding to each of th

Abstract: A method for collecting data associated with the voice of a voice system user includes conducting a plurality of conversations with a plurality of voice system users. For each conversation, a speech waveform is captured and digitized, and at least one acoustic feature is extracted. The features are correlated with at least one attribute such as gender, age, accent, native language, dialect, socioeconomic classification, educational level and emotional state. Attribute data and at least one identifying indicia are stored for each user in a data warehouse, in a form to facilitate subsequent data mining thereon. The resulting collection of stored data is then mined to provide information for modifying underlying business logic of the voice system. An apparatus suitable for carrying out the method includes a dialog management unit, an audio capture module, an acoustic from end, a processing module and a data warehouse.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for transcribing speech when a number of speakers are participating. A number of different speech recognition systems, each with a different speaker model, are executed in parallel. When the identity of all of the participating speakers is known and a speaker model is available for each participant, each speech recognition system employs a different speaker model suitable for a corresponding participant. Each speech recognition system decodes the speech and generates a corresponding confidence score. The decoded output having the highest confidence score is selected for presentation to a user. When all participating speakers are not known, or when there are too many participants to implement a unique speaker model for each participant, a speaker independent speech recognition system is employed together with a speaker specific speech recognition system.

Abstract: A radiation delivery system and method are described. The system includes a treatment configuration such as a stent, balloon catheter, wire, ribbon, or the like, a portion of which is covered with a gold layer. Chemisorbed to the gold layer is a radiation-emitting self-assembled monolayer or a radiation-emitting polymer. The radiation delivery system is compatible with medical catheter-based technologies to provide a therapeutic dose of radiation to a lesion following an angioplasty procedure.

Abstract: Apparatus for presenting images representative of one or more words in an utterance with corresponding decoded speech includes, in one aspect, a visual detector for capturing images of body movements (e.g., lip and/or mouth movements) corresponding to the one or more words in the utterance coupled to a visual feature extractor. The visual feature extractor receives time information from an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system and operatively processes the captured images from the visual detector to generate one or more image segments based on the time information relating to one or more decoded words in the utterance, each image segment corresponding to a decoded word in the utterance. An image player coupled to the visual feature extractor presents an image segment with a corresponding decoded word.

Abstract: A method of identifying homophones of a word uttered by a user from at least a portion of existing words of a vocabulary of a speech recognition engine comprises the steps of: a user uttering the word; decoding the uttered word; computing respective measures between the decoded word and at least a portion of the other existing vocabulary words, the respective measures indicative of acoustic similarity between the word and the at least a portion of other existing words; if at least one measure is within a threshold range, indicating, to the user, results associated with the at least one measure, the results preferably including the decoded word and the other existing vocabulary word associated with the at least one measure; and the user preferably making a selection depending on the word the user intended to utter.

Abstract: A transducer support assembly for supporting at least two transducers in back-to-back relationship, having particular application in a disk drive of the type having a disk or disk pack therein. The support assembly includes a support leg and a pair of flexure elements mounted in common and in back-to-back relationship on and extending outwardly from the support leg. The flexure elements are of substantially the same size and shape and are formed of flexible material, such as stainless steel, or the like. Longitudinal edge members are provided on the opposite edges of each flexure element, these edge members imparting a stiffening to the flexure element and function in a manner similar to load beams. The flexure elements are mounted offset from each other on the support leg such that their central axes are laterally displaced from each other to avoid interference between a longitudinal edge member of one flexure element and a longitudinal edge member of the other.