Abstract: An information processing apparatus may include a detection unit and a switching unit. The detection unit detects an amount of change in a position of an object of interest per a predetermined time period. The switching unit switches between a first mode for determining a first operation position on a display surface based on the position and direction of an object of interest and a second mode for determining a second operation position on the display surface based on a position where the object of interest is in contact with the display surface using the detected amount of change.

Abstract: A speech recognition apparatus which improves the sound quality of speech output as a speech recognition result is provided. The speech recognition apparatus includes a recognition unit, which recognizes speech based on a recognition dictionary, and a registration unit, which registers a dictionary entry of a new recognition word in the recognition dictionary. The recognition unit includes a generation unit, which generates a dictionary entry including speech of the new recognition word item and feature parameters of the speech, and a modification unit, which makes a modification for improving the sound quality of the speech included in the dictionary entry generated by the generation unit. The recognition unit includes a speech output unit, which outputs speech which is included in a dictionary entry corresponding to the recognition result of input speech, and is modified by the modification unit.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus may include a detection unit and a switching unit. The detection unit detects an amount of change in a position of an object of interest per a predetermined time period. The switching unit switches between a first mode for determining a first operation position on a display surface based on the position and direction of an object of interest and a second mode for determining a second operation position on the display surface based on a position where the object of interest is in contact with the display surface using the detected amount of change.

Abstract: An image capturing apparatus of this invention includes an audio acquisition unit which acquires audio data, an speech processing unit which analyzes the acquired audio data and detects predetermined audio data, an image capturing unit which captures image data by activating a shutter when the speech processing unit detects the predetermined audio data, and a storage unit which stores the audio data acquired by the audio acquisition unit before the shutter is activated in association with image data captured upon activating the shutter.

Abstract: According to known techniques, sometimes, it is not possible to estimate a position of a sound source (lips of mouth) depending on, for example, differences of colors of hair. To solve the problem, an information processing apparatus according to the present invention acquires a range image indicating a distance between an object and a reference position within a three-dimensional area, specifies a first position corresponding to a convex portion of the object within the area based on the range image, specifies a second position located in an inward direction of the object relative to the first position, and determines a position of a sound source based on the second position.

Abstract: An speech processing apparatus comprises a setting unit that sets an association between a speech recognition target vocabulary and the shortcut data for transitioning to a state to which a transition is made, when a user makes a transition to a state among the plurality of states using an operation input unit, an speech input unit that inputs an audio, a speech recognition unit that employs the speech recognition target vocabulary to recognize the audio that is input via the speech input unit, and a control unit that employs the shortcut data that corresponds to the speech recognition target vocabulary that is a recognition result of the speech recognition unit to transition to the state, in order to improve speech recognition accuracy for audio shortcuts, while also preserving the convenience of the audio shortcuts.

Abstract: A language processing unit identifies a word by performing language analysis on a text supplied from a text holding unit. A synthesis selection unit selects speech synthesis processing performed by a rule-based synthesis unit or speech synthesis processing performed by a pre-recorded-speech-based synthesis unit for a word of interest extracted from the language analysis result. The selected rule-based synthesis unit or pre-recorded-speech-based synthesis unit executes speech synthesis processing for the word of interest.

Abstract: An information-processing device and method that attains speech-recognition to recognize data input via speech. The information-processing device and method includes analyzing speech-recognition-grammar data, generating data on a template used to input data by speech based on the analysis results, and displaying the generated speech-input-template data.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus whereby advice having appropriate content can be given at an appropriate timing with regard to a method of user utterance, thereby making it possible to reduce the probability of misrecognition due to the method of utterance. An execution unit executes processing that conforms to the result of speech recognition. An analyzing unit analyzes the suitability of input speech for the speech recognition. A cancel instruction unit inputs an instruction to cancel the processing that has been executed by the execution unit. In response to the cancel instruction, a notification unit notifies the user of guidance related to speech input, based upon the result of the analysis unit.

Abstract: In order to prevent or reduce setting errors, a speech output of information concerning the contents of settings is produced so that important setting information can be output as speech to users. The present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for outputting setting information via speech, the apparatus and method including changing a plurality of preset setting values based on user input, detecting changes in the setting values, determining a priority according to which setting information is to be output as speech according to the detected changes, and producing a speech output of the setting information according to the priority.

Abstract: A signal processing apparatus and method for performing a robust endpoint detection of a signal are provided. An input signal sequence is divided into frames each of which has a predetermined time length. The presence of the signal in the frame is detected. After that, the filter process of smoothing the detection result by using the detection result for a past frame is applied to the detection result for a current frame. The filter output is compared with a predetermined threshold value to determine the state of the signal sequence of the current frame on the basis of the comparison result.

Abstract: In an information processing method for recognizing a handwritten figure or character, with use of a speech input in combination, in order to increase the recognition accuracy a given target is subjected to figure recognition and a first candidate figure list is obtained. Input speech information is phonetically recognized and a second candidate figure list is obtained. On the basis of the figure candidates obtained by the figure recognition and the figure candidates obtained by the speech recognition, a most likely figure is selected.

Abstract: A speech recognition method comprises importation of speech made by a user. This importation is started in accordance with the user's operation or movement. It is then determined whether beginning of the imported speech is present or missing. Pronunciation information of a target word to be recognized is set based on a result of a speech determination unit, and the imported speech is recognized using the set pronunciation information.

Abstract: A speech recognition apparatus and method of this invention manage previously input frequencies of occurrence for respective geographical names to be recognized (202), update the probability of occurrence of the geographical name to be recognized of interest on the basis of the frequency of occurrence of that geographical name, and those of geographical names to be recognized located within a predetermined region including the position of the geographical name of interest using a table (114) that describes correspondence between the geographical names to be recognized and their positions, and perform this update process for respective geographical names to be recognized (203).

Abstract: A segment set before updating is read, and clustering considering a phoneme environment is performed to it. For each cluster obtained by the clustering, a representative segment of a segment set belonging to the cluster is generated. For each cluster, a segment belonging to the cluster is replaced with the representative segment so as to update the segment set.

Abstract: A speech recognition apparatus includes a word dictionary having recognition target words, a first acoustic model which expresses a reference pattern of a speech unit by one or more states, a second acoustic model which is lower in precision than said first acoustic model, selection means for selecting one of said first acoustic model and said second acoustic model on the basis of a parameter associated with a state of interest, and likelihood calculation means for calculating a likelihood of an acoustic feature parameter with respect to said acoustic model selected by said selection means.

Abstract: In a speech synthesis process, micro-segments are cut from acquired waveform data and a window function. The obtained micro-segments are re-arranged to implement a desired prosody, and superposed data is generated by superposing the re-arranged micro-segments, so as to obtain synthetic speech waveform data. A spectrum correction filter is formed based on the acquired waveform data. At least one of the waveform data, micro-segments, and superposed data is corrected using the spectrum correction filter. In this way, “blur” of a speech spectrum due to the window function applied to obtain micro-segments is reduced, and speech synthesis with high sound quality is realized.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus configured to attach sound information to image data while relating the sound information to the image data includes a display control unit configured to cause a display unit to display an image represented by the image data, an acquisition unit configured to acquire sound information while the display unit is displaying the image, a detection unit configured to detect whether a speech is included in the sound information acquired by the acquisition unit, and a storage unit configured to store the sound information while relating the sound information to the image data if the detection unit detects a speech included in the sound information.

Abstract: An image capturing apparatus of this invention includes an audio acquisition unit which acquires audio data, an speech processing unit which analyzes the acquired audio data and detects predetermined audio data, an image capturing unit which captures image data by activating a shutter when the speech processing unit detects the predetermined audio data, and a storage unit which stores the audio data acquired by the audio acquisition unit before the shutter is activated in association with image data captured upon activating the shutter.

Abstract: In order to associate image data with speech data, a character detection unit detects a text region from the image data, and a character recognition unit recognizes a character from the text region. A speech detection unit detects a speech period from speech data, and a speech recognition unit recognizes speech from the speech period. An image-and-speech associating unit associates the character with the speech by performing at least character string matching or phonetic string matching between the recognized character and speech. Therefore, a portion of the image data and a portion of the speech data can be associated with each other.