5,369,726

43.72.Ne SPEECH RECOGNITION CIRCUITRY EMPLOYING NONLINEAR PROCESSING SPEECH

ELEMENT MODELING AND PHONEME

ESTIMATION

John P. Kroeker and Robert L. Powers, assignors to Eliza Corporation

29 November 1994 (Class 395/2.45); filed 17 August 1989

This thick patent presents an unusually detailed description of a phoneme-based speech recognizer system. Coefficients of a 128-point FFT are averaged by groups into 20 roughly mel-scale bands, and time/frequency matrices are formed from the band outputs. Detection of energy in one or more bands triggers a process of row and column averaging and differenc- ing, finally reducing each matrix to a proto-phoneme ("isotype") estimate. The stream of isotypes is "smoothed" by joining, inserting and deleting, resulting in a phoneme estimate stream suitable for dictionary lookup. There is no mention of the use of a grammar or syntax.--DLR

5,369,727

43.72.Ne METHOD OF SPEECH RECOGNITION

WITH CORRELATION OF SIMILARITIES

Kazuya Nomura and Taisuke Watanabe, assignors to Matsushita Electric Industrial Company

29 November 1994 (Class 395/2.61); filed in Japan 16 May 1991

This speech recognizer uses a two-layer pattern match to speed up the search process and still provide a type of temporal matching similar to time-warping. The first layer of pattern seems to consist of word elements, longer than single phonemes, but short enough that exhaustive matching is feasible at several time stretchings. The scores from this first match become the input features for a second match encompassing the full reference vocabulary.--DLR

5,369,728

43.72. Ne METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR

DETECTING WORDS IN INPUT SPEECH DATA

Tetsuo Kosaka et aL, assignors to Canon Kabushiki Kaisha 29 November 1994 (Class 395/2.63); filed in Japan 11 June 1991

This completely traditional word spotting system depends on detecting silences bracketing the targeted words, and therefore requires that the input be spoken as discrete utterances. Full dynamic time warping is performed for each reference template.--DLR

5,365,574

43.72.Pf TELEPHONE NETWORK VOICE

RECOGNITION AND VERIFICATION USING

SELECTIVELY-ADJUSTABLE SIGNAL

THRESHOLDS

Alan K. Hunt and Thomas B. Schalk, assignors to VCS Industries, Incorporated

15 November 1994 (Class 379/88); filed 15 May 1990

This patent describes the operation of a speech recognizer and speaker verifier incorporated into the telephone system. The speech processor would be used to control various on-line telephone services. A spoken prompt

would request a multidigit password which is to begin and end with specific digits. Each digit is processed by both recognition and speaker verification techniques. In the case of borderline scores, the system can request addi- tional personal data to help confirm or deny caller access to the services.-- DLR

5,392,682

43.75.St COMPUTERIZED TRAINING DEVICE FOR

LEARNING TO PLAY A PIANO

Peter J. McCartney-Hoy, Worms, Germany 28 February 1995 (Class 84/470 R); filed 24 March 1993

This is "a computerized musical keyboard and a method for using same to play or to learn to play a piano. The computerized keyboard in- cludes a standard piano keyboard connected to a computer. The computer is programmed to select from a music module a piece of music to be played on the piano, and to generate a signal indicating the proper keys to be played, the correct sequence in which the keys are to be played, and the hand and

,,-25 26 ,--29 •

IO xP_.2a 51 14-

Io

finger to be used in striking each key, in order to play on the piano the piece of music selected." In the figure the music module 18 provides information to processor 12 controlling optical rod 8 and hands 20 and 22 on screen 14. For a competitive approach see the review for patent 5,394,784 below.-- DWM

5,394,784

43.75.St ELECTRONIC APPARATUS TO ASSIST

TEACHING THE PLAYING OF A MUSICAL

INSTRUMENT

F. Scott Pierce et aL, assignors to Softronics, Incorporated 7 March 1995 (Class 84/464 A); filed 2 July 1992

This is another apparatus that can be mounted above the keyboard of a musical instrument, having lights to indicate which keys should be played in combination or in sequence, depending upon computer control receiving MIDI signals. For a competitive approach, see the review for patent 5,392,682 above.--DWM

32 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 1, July 1995 Reviews of Acoustical Patents 32

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