Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Jingyang Xu

Scott E Dart

Steven J White

Sheng Zhao

Kanwal Vedbrat

Chiwei Che

Stephen Proteau

Donald M Marsh

Christopher Andrew Evans

Denis Demandolx

Jae Pum Park

Colin Ray Anthony

Zhi Hong Li

Roberto Anthony Franco

Gregory Darrell Fee

Tyler Kien Beam

Tony Edward Schreiner

Fileno A Alleva

Brian D Wentz

Guoliang Zhang

Li-Hsin Huang

Tomasz S M Kasperkiewicz

Benjamin L Perry

David R Parlin

Jordan L K Schwartz

Alexander Sabo Brodie

John M Hawkins

Po Yuan

Aaron Ross Goldfeder

Edward J Praitis

Viresh Ramdatmisier

Jeremiah S Epling

Quji Guo

Douglas Alan Ricard

Wenlin Wang

Andrew G Bybee

Linda I Hong

Julian Jiggins

Jamie Lee Cool

Joseph T Farro

Binggong Ding

Sergey A Khorun

Kathleen M Frigon

Venkatavaradhan Panchapagesan

Jian-Chao Wang

Lu-Jun Yuan

Shenghao Qin

An interactive prompt generation and TTS optimization tool with a user-friendly graphical user interface is provided. The tool accepts HTS abstraction or speech recognition processed input from a user to generate an enhanced initial waveform for synthesis. Acoustic features of the waveform are presented to the user with graphical visualizations enabling the user to modify various parameters of the speech synthesis process and listen to modified versions until an acceptable end product is reached.

Interactive TTS optimization tool

Techniques to create and share custom voice fonts are described. An apparatus may include a preprocessing component to receive voice audio data and a corresponding text script from a client and to process the voice audio data to produce prosody labels and a rich script. The apparatus may further include a verification component to automatically verify the voice audio data and the text script. The apparatus may further include a training component to train a custom voice font from the verified voice audio data and rich script and to generate custom voice font data usable by the TTS component. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Techniques to create a custom voice font

A rope-jumping algorithm is employed in a Hidden Markov Model based text to speech system to determine start and end models and to modify the start and end models by setting small co-variances. Disordered acoustic parameters due to violation of parameter constraints are avoided through the modification and result in stable line frequency spectrum for the generated speech.

Hidden Markov model based text to speech systems employing rope-jumping algorithm

Described is a mechanism for collectively evaluating security risks associated with loading an application. A hosting environment associated with loading the application invokes a trust manager to evaluate the security risks. The trust manager invokes a plurality of trust evaluators, where each trust evaluator is responsible for analyzing and assessing a different security risk. Upon completion of each security risk evaluation, results of those individual security risk evaluations are returned to the trust manager. The trust manager aggregates the variety of security risk evaluation results and makes a security determination based on the aggregated evaluation results. That determination may be to move forward with loading the application, to block the load of the application, or perhaps to prompt the user for a decision about whether to move forward with the load.

Mechanism for evaluating security risks

Systems and methods for manipulating toolbar dimensions are provided. Each toolbar includes a number of toolbar components each having a first and second representation and the toolbar is associated with a reference value. As the toolbar dimensions are adjusted, if the reference value for the toolbar is between a first and second size thresholds, the toolbar is adjusted and displayed relative to the reference value while maintaining the relative position of the toolbar components displaying a first representation to each other. Alternatively, if the reference value for the toolbar is not between the first and second size thresholds, the toolbar is adjusted and displayed relative to the reference value while maintaining the relative position of the toolbar components displaying a second representation to each other.

Manipulating toolbar component dimensions

Methods and systems for processing digital image data utilizing vertically-oriented Effect graphs are provided. When processing digital image data utilizing Effect graphs, it is often necessary for certain Effects on the graph to render their outputs multiple times during a single rendering pass. To alleviate the exponential processing that such a scenario can cause, methods and systems for caching at least a portion of the digital image data being processed in image buffers associated with the output of one or more Effects in the Effect graph during processing are provided. Additionally provided are methods and systems for caching digital image data in image buffers associated with the output of one or more Effects across multiple processing passes of an Effect graph.

Caching digital image data

A method, system and article of manufacture suitable for rendering a graphical user interface including at least one viewable graphical element, the graphical element having a filename associated therewith, the filename being absent from the user interface.

Method for controlling filename display for image and video file types

A method, system and medium suitable for rendering substantially instantaneously thumbnail data pre-cached in a volatile memory. The thumbnail data is rendered once an indicator or pointer is hovered over an icon that has associated thumbnail data stored in the volatile memory.

Methods and systems for processing, e.g., non-destructively processing, digital image data utilizing vertically-oriented Effect graphs are provided. In non-destructive processing where and when data is transformed is fairly important, both in terms of quality and performance. The further down the vertically-oriented Effect graph a transformation occurs, the better. As such, methods for pushing transformations down an Effect graph to the lowest point possible and applying them at that point rather than the location at which they may have been placed are provided. Systems for implementing the methods herein disclosed are also provided.

Accumulating transforms through an effect graph in digital image processing

A system and method for automatically grouping items, e.g., digital photographs, by analyzing the statistical distributions of at least one piece of information associated with each of the items, for instance, creation time, are provided. In one embodiment, the creation time may be converted into a numeric value and the numeric values placed in ascending order such that gaps between adjacent numeric values may be determined. Subsequently, a median difference may be determined as well as an optimum difference. The items may then be organized into groups such that an additional group is created each time the difference between the numeric value for an item and the numeric value for the adjacent item located therebelow in the ascending array is greater than the optimum difference.

System and method for automatically grouping items

A system and method for manipulating toolbar dimensions are provided. Each toolbar includes a number of toolbar components having a textual representation and a graphic representation. As the toolbar dimensions are adjusted, a first size threshold defines when to adjust the graphic representation while maintaining the text representation, a second size threshold defines when to omit the textual representation and adjust the graphic representation and a third size threshold determines when to omit the graphic representation and fix the textual representation.

System and method for manipulating toolbar component dimensions

The present invention is generally directed to improving the stability of computing devices by identifying plug-in modules and other programs that cause failures. More specifically, the present invention provides a method that traces program execution from an instruction that ultimately generated a failure to a code library that caused the failure generating instruction to be executed. The method traces execution of the computing device by obtaining the contents of memory at the time of the failure and traversing the stack data structure that stores data items necessary to execute function calls.

Identifying a code library from the subset of base pointers that caused a failure generating instruction to be executed

A method and structure for approximating pixel display characteristics for complex displays having overlapping images is provided. Each image in the complex display corresponds to a specification of pixel color values and transparency values. Based on a format defining the number of data bits utilized to define the pixel color and pixel transparency values, each pixel's color value is approximated by mapping to a selective color palette. Depending on the format for the transparency values, each pixel's original transparency value or a mapping to a selective transparency palette is appended to the color value data. The color value and transparency values are used to recreate the complex display without requiring the original image to be reproduced.

System and method for minimizing display image size by approximating pixel display attributes

A method for approximating pixel colors in a display utilizing anoptimized color palette is provided. A color octree of a target display is generated by mapping the RGB color information from each pixel into the color octree. Each is generated such that each node of the octree tracks pixel count and color information. If the number of leaf nodes exceeds the target number of colors for the color palette, the octree is pruned by a recursive algorithm that compares a merging threshold to the number of pixels represented by each node and the number of unique colors represented by the node with a unique color lock threshold. The merging threshold and the unique color lock threshold are adjusted until the number of leaf nodes is less than the target number of colors in the color palette. Each pixel in the original display can be mapped to the color palette to reproduce the display.

System and method for approximating pixel color utilizing an optimized octree

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Jingyang Xu