NEC

About: NEC is a company organization based out in Tokyo, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Signal & Layer (electronics). The organization has 33269 authors who have published 57670 publications receiving 835952 citations. The organization is also known as: NEC Corporation & NEC Electronics Corporation.

Speech synthesis apparatus

Abstract: The invention provides a speech synthesis apparatus which can produce synthetic speech of a high quality with reduced distortion. To this end, upon production of synthetic speech based on prosodic information and phonological unit information, the prosodic information is modified using the phonological unit information, and duration length information and pitch pattern information of phonological units of the prosodic information and the phonological unit information are modified with each other. The speech synthesis apparatus includes a prosodic pattern production section for receiving utterance contents as an input thereto and producing a prosodic pattern, a phonological unit selection section for selecting phonological units based on the prosodic pattern, a prosody modification control section for searching the phonological unit information selected by the phonological unit selection section for a location for which modification to the prosodic pattern is required and outputting information of the location for the modification and contents of the modification, a prosody modification section for modifying the prosodic pattern based on the information of the location for the modification and the contents of the modification outputted from the prosody modification control section, and a waveform production section for producing synthetic speech based on the phonological unit information and the prosodic information modified by the prosody modification section using a phonological unit database.

Semiconductor storage device

Abstract: PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To avoid data holding failure which is easily caused especially in a low temperature region when holding data of a memory cell. SOLUTION: A semiconductor memory 5 detects temperature T0 where output voltage Vtemp of a temperature detecting circuit 2 is equal to output voltage Vref0 of a reference voltage generating circuit 1 is satisfied, lowers a value of the reference voltage Vref by arbitrary voltage ΔV from an external power source Vdd by a variable potential generating circuit 6 in a low temperature region of this temperature T0 or less, and this lowered voltage (Vdd-ΔV ) is supplied to the word line WL of a memory cell 4 through a word line driver 3 as a variable potential power source Vcp. COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Dynamic rate control scheduler for ATM networks

Abstract: A Dynamic Rate Control (DRC) scheduler for scheduling cells for service in a generic Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch is disclosed. According to the inventive DRC, each traffic stream associated with an internal switch queue is rate-shaped according to a rate which consists of a minimum guaranteed rate and a dynamic component computed based on congestion information within the switch. While achieving high utilization, DRC guarantees a minimum throughput for each stream and fairly distributes unused bandwidth. The distribution of unused bandwidth in DRC can be assigned flexibly, i.e., the unused bandwidth need not be shared in proportion to the minimum throughput guarantees, as in weighted fair share schedulers. Moreover, an effective closed-loop QoS control can be built into DRC by dynamically updating a set of weights based on observed QoS. Another salient feature of DRC is its ability to control congestion internal congestion at bottleneck points within a multistage switch. DRC can also be extended beyond the local switch in a hop-by-hop fashion.

Method for Thin Film Formation

Abstract: A method for thin film formation that can form, at a low temperature, a good thin film having a good interfacial property between a silicon substrate and a silicon oxide film and having a low interfacial trap density is provided. The method for thin film formation comprises generating plasma within a vacuum vessel to generate an active species (radical) and forming a silicon oxide film on a silicon substrate using this active species and a material gas, wherein, in addition to the material gas, a nitrogen atom-containing gas is introduced into the vacuum vessel in its film forming space where the active species (radical) and the material gas come into contact with each other for the first time and are reacted with each other to form a silicon film on the silicon substrate, and wherein the flow rate of the nitrogen atom-containing gas during the formation of the silicon oxide film on the silicon substrate is regulated so as to be the maximum value at least at the time of the start of formation of the silicon film on the silicon substrate.

Color ink-jet printer

Abstract: A print mechanism includes plural print heads arranged in a horizontal direction with each print head including a plurality of nozzles arranged in a vertical direction The entire print mechanism is disposed on a carriage movable in the horizontal direction Each of the print heads is preferably supplied with a different color ink, and the printing signals used to energize the nozzles in each print head are delayed for the second and subsequent print heads by an amount corresponding to the time required for the carriage to move horizontally through the displacement between the first print head and the second and subsequent print heads