Patti J Price

Title: Innovations by Patti J Price

Introduction

Patti J Price is an accomplished inventor based in Palo Alto, CA. She has made significant contributions to the field of language instruction through her innovative patents. With a total of 4 patents, her work focuses on enhancing the quality of pronunciation evaluation in language learning environments.

Latest Patents

One of her latest patents is titled "Method and system for automatic text-independent grading of pronunciation for language instruction." This invention evaluates pronunciation quality automatically for spoken utterances based on various pronunciation scores. One type of score is derived from the duration of acoustic units, such as phones and syllables. Another score is based on the posterior probability that a piece of input speech corresponds to a specific model, like a hidden Markov model (HMM). The system segments speech into phones and syllables for evaluation against these models. The utterance can be any sequence of words, even those not previously encountered. Ultimately, pronunciation scores are converted into grades similar to those assigned by human graders, making it a valuable tool in client-server language instruction environments.

Career Highlights

Patti J Price is currently employed at SRI International, where she continues to develop her innovative ideas. Her work has significantly impacted the way pronunciation is taught and assessed in language learning.

Collaborations

Some of her notable coworkers include Mitchel Weintraub and Michael H Cohen, who contribute to her projects and innovations.

Conclusion

Patti J Price's contributions to language instruction through her patents demonstrate her commitment to improving educational tools. Her innovative methods for evaluating pronunciation quality are paving the way for more effective language learning experiences.