Sony Broadcast & Professional Research Laboratories

About: Sony Broadcast & Professional Research Laboratories is a company organization based out in Taipei, Taiwan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Signal & Layer (electronics). The organization has 38708 authors who have published 63864 publications receiving 865637 citations.

Recording apparatus and recording method

Abstract: The amount of light reflected from a disk is detected, and it is determined according to the amount of reflected light whether the disk is a recordable disk or a rewritable disk. The disk is controlled according to the result of determination such that it is rotated at a constant angular velocity (CAV) or at a constant linear velocity (CLV) and recording is executed. Further, rotation driving control of the disk is selected according to factors other than the type of the disk, such as according to whether random recording is allowed or not, according to a recording state in the disk, according to whether an alternative area is provided or not, according to a recording start position, or according to whether initialization is required or not. CLV control or CAV control is appropriately selected for a disk at recording to suppress a reduction in accessibility and a reduction in data transmission rate.

Display device and display method

Abstract: Provided is a display device including a display mode controller for controlling a transition to a whole screen display mode for displaying an image in an entire screen of a display section, a multiple content display mode for displaying, on the screen, multiple thumbnail images related to contents, or a panel display mode for displaying, on the screen, a panel on which information related to the contents is displayed, an arrangement determination section for arranging multiple thumbnail images displayed in the multiple content display mode by category to which the contents belong, an arrangement change section for changing an arrangement of multiple thumbnail images by a user, and a boundary line display section for displaying, between two thumbnail images, a boundary line indicating a difference of the category before the arrangement of the thumbnail images is changed by the user, and for not displaying the boundary line after changed.

Retraining and updating speech models for speech recognition

Abstract: A technique is provided for updating speech models for speech recognition by identifying, from a class of users, speech data for a predetermined set of utterances that differ from a set of stored speech models by at least a predetermined amount. The identified speech data for similar utterances from the class of users is collected and used to correct the set of stored speech models. As a result, the corrected speech models are a closer match to the utterances than were the set of stored speech models. The set of speech models are subsequently updated with the corrected speech models to provide improved speech recognition of utterances from the class of users. For example, the corrected speech models may be processed and stored at a central database and returned, via a suitable communications channel (e.g. the Internet) to individual user sites to update the speech recognition apparatus at those sites.

Nitridation of Silicon and Oxidized‐Silicon

Abstract: The nitridation of silicon and oxidized‐silicon has been studied. The nitrided films were prepared at 900°–1150°C under ammonia partial pressures of 10−3 to 5 kg/cm2 in nitrogen and were analyzed by ellipsometry and Auger electron spectroscopy. For films formed by nitridation of silicon, we found that the growth kinetics and properties such as chemical composition, etching rate, and oxidation resistance were independent of the ammonia partial pressure. The nitridation of silicon can be explained by a modified Ritchie‐Hunt theory, which assumes that a very slow surface reaction at the ammonia‐nitride interface is the rate‐determining factor, using the logarithmic rate law. According to this modified Ritchie‐Hunt theory, the nitridation of silicon proceeds mainly by cation migration under a constant electric field. On the other hand, it was found that the nitridation of oxidized‐silicon depended strongly on the ammonia parital pressure. This dependence may be caused by diffusion of ammonia or its derivatives through the oxide. The conversion of silicon dioxide to silicon oxynitride occurred throughout the oxide.