Abstract: A system for successively extracting unprocessed substrates from a cassette, successively conveying the extracted substrates to a plurality of processing units, causing the processing units to process the substrates, and successively returning processed substrates to a cassette is disclosed. In the system, corresponding to a recipe that contains process conditions for each of at least one lot, a process start prediction time at which processes of each lot start and a process completion prediction time at which processes for each lot are completed are calculated for at least two processes. Corresponding to the process start prediction time and the process completion prediction time, at least one of optimum processing units that optimize processes for each lot is selected for each lot.

Abstract: A method for controlling the movement of agents using local communications is provided. Generally, each agent maintains an optimal distance from other local neighbor agents by, for each agent 200, selecting a local agent 202, measuring the distance and angle to the agent 204, performing a distance maintenance calculation 218, and repeating the distance maintenance calculation 218 for each local agent. In the distance maintenance calculation 218, an attraction/repulsion map is used in order to determine whether an agent is attracted to or repelled from other agents. A motion vector is used to determine agent responses to the attraction or repulsion. Over time, the agents settle into a neutral configuration where each is optimally distanced from the other agents. Reference agents and leader agents can be designated to direct the movement of other agents, and agents can be designated as blocking beacons to repel other agents from undesirable areas.

Abstract: A sensor device comprising an interface medium having an outer layer for interaction by a user, at least two transducers located on or in the interface medium and spaced from the outer layer, and each adapted to generate a signal in response to interaction by the user, and a processor to receive the signal and determine the location on the outer layer at which the user has interacted with the outer layer.

Abstract: A robot which incorporates a body, two arms, two legs, several sensors, an audio system, a light assembly, and a video device. The sensors located throughout the body of the robot combined with an edge detection sensor allows the robot to interact with objects in the room, and prevents the robot from traveling off an edge or bumping into obstacles. The audio system allows the robot to detect and transmit sounds. The video device allows a user to remotely view the area in front of the robot. Additionally, the robot may operate in a plurality of modes which allow the robot to operate autonomously. The robot may operate autonomously in an automatic mode, a security mode, a greet mode, and a monitor mode. Further, the robot can be manipulated remotely.

Abstract: The control of emissions from fossil-fired boilers wherein an injection of substances above the primary combustion zone employs multi-layer feedforward artificial neural networks for modeling static nonlinear relationships between the distribution of injected substances into the upper region of the furnace and the emissions exiting the furnace. Multivariable nonlinear constrained optimization algorithms use the mathematical expressions from the artificial neural networks to provide the optimal substance distribution that minimizes emission levels for a given total substance injection rate.

Abstract: An irrigation timer (2) includes a controller (8) coupleable to a power source (16), user inputs (12) coupled to the controller, controller output terminals (18) coupleable to an irrigation valve actuator (20) and an internal day-of-week and time-of-day clock. The controller may be pre-programmed with a predetermined, known initialization day-of-week and start time-of-day setting so that upon actuation, the clock automatically begins running at that setting, such as Sunday, 6:00 PM. The user inputs may have a single, preset function so that no user input is a multifunction input to help make programming essentially intuitive.

Abstract: An emergency control system permits an aircraft to recover from a catastrophic loss of cabin pressure even if the pilot becomes incapacitated before he is able to activate an emergency oxygen system. An autopilot system is programmed for rapid descent, in response to a cabin depressurization condition detected by an air pressure sensor, to a flight level where there is sufficient oxygen in the atmosphere to sustain full consciousness. When in the rapid descent mode, the autopilot cuts engine power to idle, reduces the angle of attack, maximizes parasitic drag, and initiates a maximum descent rate without exceeding the aircraft's design limitations. As the aircraft approaches a lower altitude capable of sustaining full human consciousness, the autopilot system increases the angle of attack, reduces parasitic drag, and increases engine power, thereby causing the aircraft to fly level at the lower altitude until the pilot reasserts control of the aircraft.

Abstract: A system and method for a remote calling system for an automatic guided vehicle is disclosed herein. The remote calling system is configured to receive a destination request from an operator located at a remote location. The remote calling system is further configured to check the availability of the automatic guided vehicle at each of the parking lots. When at least one automatic guided vehicle is available at a parking lot, the remote calling system transmits the destination request to that parking lot. The remote calling system utilizes a telephone communication system.

Abstract: An apparatus for controlling a semi-active suspension system of a vehicle including at least one shock absorber using magneto-rheological fluids. The shock absorber has a rebound valve and a compression valve which are configured such that damping forces of the shock absorber generated in rebound strokes and compression strokes being controlled independently. The apparatus comprises a normal driving control unit for determining a ride value (Sride) and a filtered vehicular vertical velocity (vi) based on a vertical vehicular acceleration, an anti-roll control unit for determining a roll value (Sroll) based on a velocity and a steering angle of the vehicle, and a damping force adjusting unit for controlling the rebound valve and the compression valve of the shock absorber based on the roll value (Sroll), the ride value (Sride) and the filtered vehicular vertical velocity (vi) under a predetermined condition.

Abstract: Vehicular rear seat area monitoring system including at least one wave-receiving sensor arranged behind the front seat to receive waves from a space above the rear seat and a processor coupled to the sensor(s) for controlling another system in the vehicle based on the waves received by the sensor(s). The sensors may be of several different types. For example, an optical sensor can be provided which receives images including the space above the rear seat, a CCD array, a CMOS array and an optical camera including a lens can be used, and a radar sensor is also a possibility. If one of the sensors is a radar sensor, then the processor may be designed or trained to analyze motion of objects in the rear seat based on the waves received by the radar sensor and control the system based on any motion of the objects.

Abstract: The controller for a drive train, with engine and transmission controllers has: a detection circuit with which respective driving situations of the motor vehicle and driver's characteristics are determined, and a control device for the clutch which, when the motor vehicle starts, is adapted to the driving situation which is determined and/or the driver's characteristics. When the motor vehicle starts (accelerates from standstill), the control device transfers, to the engine controller, signals with which the engine speed is stored according to stored characteristic curves.

Abstract: In preview brake controlling apparatus and method for an automotive vehicle, a relative distance of the vehicle to an object for the vehicle to be braked is detected, a determination of whether the vehicle is approaching to the object on the basis of the relative distance of the vehicle to the object is made, a vehicular velocity variation rate (acceleration/deceleration) manipulation variable is made, the determination of whether the vehicle falls in a preliminary brake pressure application enabled state requiring a preliminary brake pressure application on the basis of results of detection at the steps of the approaching state detecting and of the vehicular velocity variation rate manipulation situation detection is made, and a predetermined constant brake pressure in accordance with a vehicular running condition prior to a vehicular driver's brake manipulation is developed when determining that the vehicle falls in the brake preliminary application enabled state.

Abstract: The instant invention provides a system and method for controlling the flight of an aircraft to meet an RTA. The system comprises a speed profile generator that communicates with a trajectory generator to produce a speed profile signal that enables the aircraft to reach a waypoint substantially at a predetermined time. In the system of the instant invention, the speed profile generator receives a nominal speed command signal, a time error signal and a sensitivity signal. Based on these inputs, the speed profile generator produces a speed profile signal. The trajectory generator receives the speed profile signal and a required time of arrival signal. Based on these signals, the trajectory generator produces a time error signal and a sensitivity signal. This sensitivity signal represents the sensitivity of the time error signal to changes in the speed profile signal.

Abstract: A mobile navigation system includes display map information generator to generate display map information based on the present position information of a mobile vehicle, reads, from a map information storing device, the map information of the near region at the external side of the region indicated with the display map information for each movement of the mobile vehicle of only the predetermined distance, and generates and stores the map information in the far region extending along the moving route of the mobile vehicle. The mobile navigation system can store the desired map information without any limitation on the capacity of memory and quickly display the necessary map information.

Abstract: A road map display device including a road map information memory for memorizing road map data on a two-dimensional coordinate and a detection device for detecting a present position and a travel direction of an automotive vehicle, wherein the two-dimensional coordinate of the road map data is read out from the information memory in accordance with the present position and travel direction of the vehicle detected by the detection device and displayed in the form of a plane view on a screen of a display unit.

Abstract: The present invention provides a system, a method and a computer usable medium including a program for a vehicle that has traveled off of a planned route. This may be done by providing a plurality of nodes located on road segments, generating a plurality of pre-established checkpoints at intersections and receiving a signal including a location coordinate identifying current vehicle position. It may also be done by comparing the vehicle coordinates to the coordinates of checkpoints, constructing a proximity ellipse in response to the aforementioned comparison and identifying at least one return path cycle within the ellipse with acceptable road segments that allow travel back to a planned route.

Abstract: A vehicle tracking unit may include a user registration reminder indicator, a vehicle position determining device, a wireless communications device, and a controller. The controller is preferably switchable from an unregistered mode to a registered mode. In the registered mode, the controller may cooperate with the wireless communications device and the vehicle position determining device to determine and send vehicle position information to the monitoring station. In the unregistered mode, the controller may activate the user registration reminder indicator to encourage registration by the user. The controller may be switchable to the registered mode based upon an activation message from the monitoring station.

Abstract: A method for the suppression of multiple reflections using a Kirchhoff algorithm Multiple reflections are simulated by means of a Kirchhoff-type summation applied to a pseudo zero-offset section. An adaptive filter is applied to adjust the simulated multiple. The adjusted simulated multiple is subtracted from the input data.

Abstract: A method for identifying putative peptides of a given function from among nucleotide or peptide sequences of unknown function comprising the steps of: (i) obtaining a polynucleotide or polypeptide database; (ii) screening the database for the presence of a combination of nucleotides or amino acids indicative of the peptide of given function; (ii) identifying the polynucleotide or polypeptide sequences which comprise the combination of nucleotides or amino acids indicative of the peptide of given function.

Abstract: A gear transmission monitoring method includes: forming a good operating condition baseline matrix by, for each of a plurality of different gear mesh frequencies, obtaining a good operating condition signal indicative of gear transmission conditions over a segment of time and transforming the obtained good operating condition signal into a good operating condition time-frequency spectrum; and then obtaining a gear mesh frequency and a test signal over a segment of time, transforming the obtained test signal into a test time-frequency spectrum, and using the gear mesh frequency and the good operating condition baseline matrix to examine the test time-frequency spectrum to monitor gear transmission conditions.

Abstract: An electronic monitor is disclosed which continuously monitors the sound emanating from rotating machinery, non-rotating equipment, or any other sound-producing process or environment, as a means of detecting abnormalities and thus determining the operating condition thereof. The monitor continuously computes the power spectrum of the monitored sound and has two modes of operation: learn and operate. The monitor is placed in the learn mode during a time when the machine or process to be monitored is known to be operating normally. During the learn mode, the maximum and minimum acoustic power output from each of a plurality of digital bandpass filters is continuously maintained and updated in data memory as the acoustic signature of the machine or process being monitored.

Abstract: A digital flowmeter includes a vibratable conduit, a driver connected to the conduit and operable to impart motion to the conduit, and a sensor connected to the conduit and operable to sense the motion of the conduit. A control and measurement system is connected to the driver and the sensor. The control and measurement system includes circuitry to receive a sensor signal from the sensor, generate a drive signal based on the sensor signal using digital signal processing, supply the drive signal to the driver, and generate a measurement of a property of a two-phase material flowing through the conduit based on the signal from the sensor.

Abstract: A method of selecting devices for use in a fluid pipeline network, wherein items of data concerning devices are stored in a pipe database, a pipe joint database and a valve database, and calculating equations for use in computation are also stored. Devices are temporarily selected by using the stored device data, and then computation is performed by using the stored calculating equations, thereby allowing device selection to be made easily. In addition, a block diagram of the fluid pipeline network can be made easily.

Abstract: As distinguished from conventional fluid flow vorticity determination methodologies, which must simultaneously measure all velocity components at plural locations, vorticity determination is inventively effected whereby velocity components are non-simultaneously (sequentially) measured at the various locations. At least three locations in the fluid are selected, a velocity signal is generated at each location, a reference signal (such as relating to pressure, acceleration or force) is generated at each location simultaneously with the generation of the velocity signal at such location, the time intervals between reference signals are recognized, and the foregoing information is received and/or considered by a computer system which mathematically accomplishes simultaneity of the generation of the velocity signals, thereby computing the vorticity as if such simultaneity has actually occurred.

Abstract: A system for monitoring power quality events of electrical energy provided to an energy meter via a service type comprises a memory for storing reference information reflective of different service types, a digital signal processor for measuring characteristics of the electrical energy, and a microcontroller for retrieving the reference information from the memory and comparing the measured characteristics to the reference information for the service type to determine the occurrence of power quality events. For each power quality event, at least one of a start time, a stop time, a duration, a measured phase, a magnitude of a measured quantity, and a predisturbance value, and a cumulative total of the power quality events is recorded.

Abstract: An electromagnetic wave analyzer which numerically analyzes the behavior of electromagnetic waves at a higher computation speed, even when the object model has fine geometrical features. An analysis command input unit produces a command to initiate a simulation. Upon receipt of this command, an analyzing unit starts to calculate electromagnetic field components with an alternating direction implicit FD-TD method. The analyzing unit divides each time step into a first-half and second-half stages and alternately executes their respective operations.

Abstract: A pulse management system for use by an operator that automatically performs measurements on a subset of pulses of an acquired signal stored in an acquisition memory, and generates an accessible data structure that stores characteristics of the chosen subset of acquired signal pulses, including pulse measurement results. The system searches the data structure for pulses of the acquired signal that satisfy operator-provided search criteria. In addition, the operator can sort the selected pulses in any desired manner by specifying a desired sort criteria. The system displays selected pulses along with the associated measurement results, and enables the operator to advance through the selected pulses in any mannerism to display different pulses together or separately along with the associated pulse measurement results. A method for analyzing pulses of an acquired signal is also disclosed.

Abstract: A direct current machine monitoring system includes a current sensor for monitoring load current of the machine; and a computer for obtaining a power spectrum in a range including a machine trait-passing frequency, determining a magnitude of a maximum peak in the power spectrum in a range including the trait-passing frequency plus or minus an uncertainty frequency, and evaluating the magnitude of the maximum peak to assess a condition of the machine. The computer may additionally or alternatively be used for obtaining a low frequency power spectrum of the load current, obtaining at least one magnitude of a component of the power spectrum at a respective predicted frequency, and evaluating the at least one magnitude of the component to assess the condition of the machine.

Abstract: The damping behavior of a physical system is evaluated by mapping of damping loss factors calculated from time-dependent amplitude and frequency functions to form a full time-frequency dependent damping spectrum. The time-dependent amplitude and frequency functions are formulated by calculations based on the intrinsic mode functions derived by empirical mode decomposition of the original time series dataset representing the system behavior. The amplitude and frequency functions for each intrinsic mode function are calculated from the polar representation of the Hilbert transform-based time-dependent complex function corresponding to the intrinsic mode function.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for improving microprocessor data acquisition. Noise in analog signals is removed by a low pass filter with a variable cutoff frequency controlled to cut off all frequencies above a frequency range of interest. The filtered signal is sampled by an analog-to-digital converter at a sampling rate which is variable and controlled to sample at a rate that is at least two times the low pass filter cutoff frequency thereby reducing the rate at which data is passed to a microprocessor and reducing the need for speed in the microprocessor's processing.

Abstract: A method for identifying failure signatures of semiconductor wafers is disclosed. Testing for obtaining a first set of test data indicative of a failure signature is performed on a number of wafers having circuit patterns thereon. The test data is divided into a first subset of test data associated with a failure signature and a second subset of test data not associated with the failure signature. The set of test data is used to generate coefficients of a discriminant function. Testing is performed on a subsequently manufactured wafer to obtain a second set of test data. The discriminant function is applied to the second set of test data to obtain a discriminant value, and the wafer is identified as having the failure signature when the discriminant value is greater than or equal to a threshold value.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a semiconductor device testing system having an advanced testing capability for performing tests on a semiconductor device. A system frame includes both normal and high-speed testing formatters, and a test head is arranged in electrical communication with the system frame. Normal PIN drivers are included to operate the testing system at a first frequency to transmit the signals required to perform tests at a normal speed. High-speed PIN drivers are also included to operate the testing system at a second frequency, higher than the first frequency, to transmit the signals required to perform tests at a higher speed. In this manner, the testing system of this invention is able-to achieve superior testing performance while reducing the overall system production cost.

Abstract: A mobile user collaborator discovery method and system that tracks and correlates user position and gaze direction information in a physical environment in order to determine common interests. The physical environment is represented by an array divided into a plurality of elements, each representing a particular physical area of the environment. The mobile user collaborator discovery method and system includes an activity monitor to track user position and gaze direction information, an entry processor to process the user position and gaze direction information to determine the elements of the array corresponding to physical areas viewed by the user, and to provide the information to a match database, and a matcher to correlate information regarding elements of the array corresponding to physical areas viewed by the user in order to determine portions of the array representing areas of common interest to the users.

Abstract: A method for determining spraying parameters that are suitable as input values for a paint spraying unit that can electrostatically charge a liquid paint. In this case, at least one artificial neural network is used to determine the spraying parameters, an output of such a neural network being available for each spraying parameter. A suitable number of real measured values are fed to the one neural network or a plurality of neural networks as input values, initially in a learning phase. The measured values further contain associated real spraying parameters in addition to a paint thickness distribution in the form of discrete values. Input values are fed to the one neural network or a plurality of neural networks in the application phase. The input values being the result of an analysis of the paint thickness distribution of a targeted, that is to say prescribed, spraying result.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for compressing, storing and transmitting measurement data correlative to machine status is disclosed in which the measurement data is continuously sensed, sampled and processed to extract significant spectral elements including magnitude and phase information from each successive period of the originally measured data and to store those spectral elements in a memory means from an initial period of significant spectral elements and each successive period of significant spectral elements which have changed since the previous period for developing a compressed data history correlative to a continuous history of the status of the machine being monitored and from which continuous signals can be regenerated and analyzed for any earlier historical time.

Abstract: A method and system for compensating for instrumentation overhead in trace data is provided. To profile a program, the program is executed to generate trace records that are written to a trace file. A set of event trace records in a trace file is processed to determine one or more trace overhead compensation values. The trace overhead compensation values are determined by computing, for each successive pair of event trace records in the trace file, a difference between a first timestamp in a preceding event trace record and a second timestamp in a succeeding event trace record. The minimum value of all of these differences is then stored as a trace overhead compensation value representing an amount of time for instrumentation processing of an event. The one or more trace overhead compensation values are applied to the event trace records during subsequent processing of the set of event trace records.

Abstract: A formal drawing for a machine part includes datum features that are used to construct a Datum Reference Frame (DRF) for the part. A Feature Control Frame (FCF) for each datum feature that is intended to eliminate roll about a fixed primary axis of the DRF includes a material location modifier which specifies whether the orientation or the location of the feature should be used to eliminate roll. The material location modifiers enable specification of Independent of Material Location (IML), at Basic Material Location (BML), at Maximum Material Location (MML) and at Least Material Location (LML), eliminate all ambiguity in the formal drawing, and enable a DRF to be constructed automatically using a computer. The material location modifiers further eliminate any possibility of misinterpretation of the formal drawing during all stages of manufacture and inspection of the part.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for determining the RC delays associated with branches of a network comprised in an integrated circuit. The apparatus comprises logic configured to execute a rules checker algorithm. When the rules checker algorithm is executed, the algorithm analyzes information relating to the network and determines the total effective RC delays between the output of a driver gate of the network and the inputs of one or more receiver gates of the network.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for hardware logic verification data transfer checking are implemented. Data for transfer is generated in response to a decoded bus transaction instruction using a pseudorandom number generator. The seed for the generator includes a predetermined portion provided to each bus device. The predetermined portion is combined with the address of the target device, obtained from the decoded instruction, to form the seed input to the random number generator. For write transactions, the bus master generates the data to be transferred using the seed, and sends the data to the target. The target independently generates the data by a call to the random number generator and compares the value received via the data transfer with the independently generated value. Similarly, for read transactions, the slave device generates the data to be transferred in response to the read request.

Abstract: A high-speed performance simulation method and system for simulating the performance of a large-scaled system such as a parallel computer. In implementation, the large-scaled system is divided into subsystems or partial units and the divided subsystems are simulated in parallel. Even when a particular partial unit occupies a shared resource, high-speed, well-coordinated performance simulation is achieved. A performance simulation system includes a plurality of performance simulators and an overall control section connected to these performance simulators. The plurality of performance simulators individually simulate the performances of partial units into which a simulant is divided. The overall control section causes the performance simulators to conduct the simulation processes alternately every AT cycle.

Abstract: An integrated sub-network for a vehicle. The sub-network includes one or more devices which are addressable using IP addresses or object terminology. The sub-network may appear as a single IP address to an external network. The devices may include various servers and clients, such as microphones, cameras, GPS receivers, interfaces to on-board diagnostic systems, communication devices, displays, CD players, radios, speakers, security devices and LANs (local are networks,) to name only a few. Devices may easily be connected or disconnected to upgrade or reconfigure the vehicle's systems, and software and services can easily be provided to the various devices through the network. The network can enable the interaction of various network devices to increase the capabilities or utility of devices which may otherwise be limited. The system therefore provides an easy and inexpensive means to improve or otherwise modify the functionality of the vehicle.

Abstract: This invention provides a method for symbol manipulation in an electronic data processing system that can be used to alter the representation of ages, names, and proverbs in ways that some people find to be highly amusing. Among other advantages, the representation of people's ages can be altered so that a younger person seems older and an older person seems younger, and the representation of people's names can be altered so that they appear to come from other cultures and are descriptive of the person. Similarly, the representation of proverbs can be altered so that they appear to concern matters of individualized interest. In a preferred embodiment, the method of the present invention comprises the steps, using an electronic data processing system, of inputting an expression of age in base 10 notation, converting the expression of age in base 10 notation to an expression of age in an alternate base notation, and outputting the expression of age in the alternate base notation.

Abstract: A mock translation method and system is provided which converts base-language data and performs a mock translation on it to produce internationalization test data. The mock translation data is created by inserting additional characters, such as a tilde (˜) into each of the text strings from the user interface of a software program. The additional characters are used as a placeholder to accommodate the additional space needed for later translating the text into a different language. In addition, field boundary characters, such as brackets, are used to designate the beginning and end of the text with the placeholders. This data is stored in localization files and displayed in a software application in place of the English or foreign-language text. By visually inspecting each screen, the programmer or proofreader is able to easily recognize many internationalization errors, without requiring the ability to read any foreign language.

Abstract: The present invention comprises a National Language Support (NLS) system with Language Driver Identifiers (LDIDs) embedded as locale-specific descriptors within data objects. The Identifiers, which may be in the form of a system-comparable ID (e.g., ID byte), are employed by the system in several places to record the particular language (driver) which was used when a given data object was created or modified. The LDID methodology of the present invention allows the system to intelligently process data objects created or modified under one language driver with those created or modified by a different language driver. In the event of incompatibilities, the system provides error handling routines, including a preferred interface for warning users of incompatibilities and receiving user choices in response thereof.

Abstract: A multi-rate speech codec supports a plurality of encoding bit rate modes by adaptively selecting encoding bit rate modes to match communication channel restrictions. In higher bit rate encoding modes, an accurate representation of speech through CELP (code excited linear prediction) and other associated modeling parameters are generated for higher quality decoding and reproduction. To achieve high quality in lower bit rate encoding modes, the speech encoder departs from the strict waveform matching criteria of regular CELP coders and strives to identify significant perceptual features of the input signal. To support lower bit rate encoding modes, a variety of techniques are applied many of which involve the classification of the input signal. For each bit rate mode selected, pluralities of fixed or innovation subcodebooks are selected for use in generating innovation vectors.

Abstract: A group of words to be registered in a word dictionary are sorted in order of sound models to produce a word list. A tree-structure word dictionary in which sound models at head part of the words are shared among the words, is prepared using this word list. Each node having a different set of reachable words from a parent node holds word information including a minimum out of word IDs of words reachable from that node, and the number of words reachable from that node. For searching for a word matching with speech input, language likelihoods are looked ahead using this word information. The word matching with the speech input can be recognized efficiently, using such a tree-structure word dictionary and a look-ahead method of language likelihood.

Abstract: A method and system for evaluating the accuracy of a computer speech recognition system counts and indexes the total number of words dictated and the number of words corrected. The corrections are tallied after being made in a correction window and include words contained in an alternative list as well as words input by the user and within a stored word database. A processor calculates the approximate accuracy of the speech recognition system as the ratio of the number of correct words to the total number of words dictated. An accuracy ratio is calculated for each dictation session and an overall ratio is calculated for all sessions combined. The system also keeps individual and overall indexes of the number of times the corrected words were in alternate lists or not within the word database and uses these indexes to calculate additional accuracy values.

Abstract: A web-based voice messaging system uses an application server, configured for executing a voice application defined by XML documents, that accesses subscriber attributes from a standardized information database server (such as LDAP), and messages from a standardized messaging server (such as IMAP). The application server, upon receiving a request from a browser serving a subscriber, accesses an IP based messaging server to obtain a stored message for the subscriber from a second party. The stored message identifies a text-based form. The application server converts the text-based form into an audible format. The application server generates an HTML document to present to the subscriber the form in audible format with audible prompts, based on the HTTP request and the text-based form. The application server then updates the text-based form based on an input from the subscriber. Thus, text-based forms can be retrieved and acted on via a telephone.

Abstract: A financial data system is disclosed that receives real-time data, uses a set of pre-determined rules to prioritize the data and provide a priority value, and then delivers the highest priority data by way of multiple audio channels. A key aspect of the invention is the use of data manipulation according to the priority value to adjust delivery volume, provide selective vocalization compression, add additional audio channels, or to override an existing comment when required. As a result of the invention, a significant amount of information may be aurally delivered to a user including properties of events as they change in response to changing financial conditions.

Abstract: A sound signal processing apparatus including extracting means for extracting from a composite sound signal, representing multiple sound sequences, digital sound signals corresponding to a portion of the composite sound signal. Each of the digital sound signals is individually sampled. Also included is a signal converter for converting the digital sound signals which have been extracted into analog sound signals.