An intelligent automated assistant system engages with the user in an integrated, conversational manner using natural language dialog, and invokes external services when appropriate to obtain information or perform various actions. The system can be implemented using any of a number of different platforms, such as the web, email, smartphone, and the like, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, the system is based on sets of interrelated domains and tasks, and employs additional functionally powered by external services with which the system can interact.

Intelligent Automated Assistant

Media objects are transformed into active, connected objects via identifiers embedded into them or their containers. In the context of a user's playback experience, a decoding process extracts the identifier from a media object and possibly additional context information and forwards it to a server. The server, in turn, maps the identifier to an action, such as returning metadata, re-directing the request to one or more other servers, requesting information from another server to identify the media object, etc. The linking process applies to broadcast objects as well as objects transmitted over networks in streaming and compressed file formats.

Connected audio and other media objects

The various methods and devices described herein relate to devices which, in at least certain embodiments, may include one or more sensors for providing data relating to user activity and at least one processor for causing the device to respond based on the user activity which was determined, at least in part, through the sensors. The response by the device may include a change of state of the device, and the response may be automatically performed after the user activity is determined.

Automated Response to and Sensing of User Activity in Portable Devices

A virtual assistant uses context information to supplement natural language or gestural input from a user. Context helps to clarify the user's intent and to reduce the number of candidate interpretations of the user's input, and reduces the need for the user to provide excessive clarification input. Context can include any available information that is usable by the assistant to supplement explicit user input to constrain an information-processing problem and/or to personalize results. Context can be used to constrain solutions during various phases of processing, including, for example, speech recognition, natural language processing, task flow processing, and dialog generation.

Using context information to facilitate processing of commands in a virtual assistant

A method for detecting against unauthorized transmission of digital works comprises the steps of maintaining a registry of information permitting identification of digital copyrighted works, monitoring a network for transmission of at least one packet-based digital signal, extracting at least one feature from the at least one digital signal, comparing the extracted at least one feature with registry information and applying business rules based on the comparison result.

Copyright detection and protection system and method

A respiratory condition analysis apparatus includes a respiratory signal acquisition section configured to acquire a time-series respiratory signal including respiratory sound of a living body, a respiratory segment identification section configured to identify a respiratory segment that is a time segment including the respiratory sound in the respiratory signal, a feature value generation section configured to generate a predetermined feature value of the respiratory signal for the identified respiratory segment, and a respiratory abnormality degree generation section configured to generate a degree of abnormality of the respiratory sound included in the respiratory signal on the basis of the feature value.

Respiratory condition analysis apparatus, respiratory condition display apparatus, processing method therein, and program

A pitch extraction method and apparatus whereby the pitch of a speech signal having various characteristics can be extracted accurately. The frame-based input speech signal, band-limited by an HPF 12 and an LPF 16, is sent to autocorrelation computing units 13, 17 where autocorrelation data is found. The pitch lag is computed and normalized in the pitch intensity/pitch lag computing units 14, 18. The pitch reliability of the input speech signals, limited by the HPF 12 and the LPF 16, is computed in elevation parameter calculation units. A selection unit 20 selects one of the parameters obtained from the input speech signal, limited by the HPF 12 and the LPF 16, using the pitch lag and the evaluation parameter.

Pitch extraction method and device

There is provided a call voice processing apparatus including an input correction unit that corrects characteristics of a first input sound input from a first input apparatus to characteristics of a second input sound input from a second input apparatus, a sound separation unit that separates the second input sound into a plurality of sounds, a sound type estimation unit that estimates sound types of the plurality of sounds separated by the sound separation unit, a mixing ratio calculation unit that calculates a mixing ratio of each sound in accordance with the sound type estimated by the sound type estimation unit, a sound mixing unit that mixes the plurality of sounds separated by the sound separation unit in the mixing ratio calculated by the mixing ratio calculation unit, and an extraction unit that extracts a specific sound from the first input sound corrected by the input correction unit.

Call Voice Processing Apparatus, Call Voice Processing Method and Program

Detection equipment, method and computer program

A digital audio signal processing apparatus is provided having a predictive error generator for generating predictive error data by processing input digital data to acquire a plurality of different frequency characteristics. A selector selects one of the plural predictive error data. A requantizer requantizes the selected predictive error data. A corrector processes with a predetermined frequency characteristic, the requantization error induced during the operation of the requantizer, thereby correcting the requantization error caused in the requantizer. A frequency characteristic control selects at least two of the predictive error data obtained with the plural frequency characteristics, then calculates the selected predictive error data and controls the frequency characteristic in the corrector in accordance with the result of such calculation. In this apparatus, the ratio or the difference between at least two predictive error data obtained with a plurality of frequency characteristics is calculated and then is compared with a predetermined reference value. The frequency characteristic in the corrector is controlled in conformity with the numerical relation between the calculated value and the reference value. Therefore, two or more frequency characteristics in the corrector are selectively rendered conformable with one frequency characteristic in the predictive error generator, hence achieving an enhanced effect of further improving the signal-to-noise ratio.

Masayuki Nishiguchi

Papers

Respiratory condition analysis apparatus, respiratory condition display apparatus, processing method therein, and program

Pitch extraction method and device

Call Voice Processing Apparatus, Call Voice Processing Method and Program

Detection equipment, method and computer program

Apparatus for processing digital audio signal