Abstract: [Object] An object is to provide a client having a local speech recognition function, capable of activating a speech recognition function of a speech recognition server in a natural manner, and capable of maintaining high precision while not increasing burden on a communication line.

Abstract: A photoelectric sensor transmits pulsed light repetitively, receives light which may include noise and generates a corresponding electrical reception signal. The level of reception signal is compared with a specified threshold value at a timing which is slightly delayed from the timing of light transmission. A sensor output is generated on the basis of the result of this comparison. If periodically changing noise is present and the reception signal has an AC waveform, the level of the reception signal is compared with another threshold value proximal to an AC zero level. The timing of next light transmission is controlled on the basis of the result of the second comparison.

Abstract: A photoelectric sensor transmits pulsed light repetitively, receives light which may include noise and generates a corresponding electrical reception signal. The level of reception signal is compared with a specified threshold value at a timing which is slightly delayed from the timing of light transmission. A sensor output is generated on the basis of the result of this comparison. If periodically changing noise is present and the reception signal has an AC waveform, the level of the reception signal is compared with another threshold value proximal to an AC zero level. The timing of next light transmission is controlled on the basis of the result of the result of the second comparison.

Abstract: An apparatus is described for rearranging the relative positions of data samples of a digital video signal within each field of the video signal, for use in a digital VTR in which alternate samples are separated into two different recording channels to be recorded on different tracks of a recording medium. The apparatus includes an intra-line shuffling circuit and a field memory into which output data from the shuffling circuit are written, such that adjacent samples which are of the same channel and are located mutually adjacent in the same line of the video signal are read out from the memory and recorded on respectively different tracks of the recording medium, thereby ensuring that if a sample is lost due to a read error, the adjacent samples of the same channel will always be available for use in interpolation processing to compensate for the lost sample.

Abstract: A recording digital VCR for recording digital PAL signals sampled at four times the chrominance subcarrier frequency, includes: a selection range shifter for shifting a sample in the horizontal direction by two samples depending on the field number; a sync. ID attacher for attaching sync. and ID including the field number; and an RF recorder for recording the signals on the tape. When the data signals recorded on the tape are reproduced at a high speed, samples stored across the fields in a reproduction memory can have the same address and same phase. Thus, it is possible to realize a recording format for reproducing a color at a high speed which has an excellent picture quality.

Abstract: A sampling frequency down-converting apparatus low-pass converts a digital picture signal sampled at a sampling frequency of 8 Fsc by a thinning out operation into the digital picture signal sampled at a frequency of 4 Fsc, and a sampling frequency up-converting apparatus high-pass converts the digital picture signal sampled at 4 Fsc into one sampled at 8 Fsc by interpolation. If the signal is wider in the required zone than the conventional NTSC signal and the PAL signal like the ATV signal, the transmission and the recording may be effected without the deterioration of the frequency characteristics.

Abstract: A method and apparatus of reproducing data recorded on a recording medium encompass generating a flag indicative of a state of the recorded data, storing the recorded data into a data memory and the flag into a flag memory, reading the recorded data from the data memory and flag from the flag memory, and selectively initializing the flag memory during a reading period, such as slow-motion reproduction and freeze reproduction, in which the recorded data and flag are to be repeatedly read out from the data memory and flag memory a number of times prior to a subsequent writing of the recorded data and flag into the data memory and the flag memory. The initializing of the flag memory is carried out only during a final time the recorded data stored in the data memory is read during the reading period.

Abstract: In a recording/reproducing apparatus for digital composite video signal, a phase sync circuit (110) for synchronizing color subcarrer phases, a sync/ID adding circuit (9), a sync/ID detecting circuit (12), a memory control circuit (13), a memory (14), and a phase relocating circuit (111), are provided for obtaining correct hues of the digital composite video signal when high-speed reproducing. When high-speed reproducing, the memory control circuit (13) is operated such that corresponding sampled signals in the memory (14) are stored as the same address with the same color subcarrier phase. As a result, a high image quality is achieved by the recording/reproducing apparatus even when high-speed reproducing with low manufacturing cost.