Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Matsushita Research Institute Tokyo, Inc.

Taisuke Watanabe

Katsuyuki Niyada

Toshiki Kindo

Toshiyuki Morii

Kazutoshi Yasunaga

Hideyuki Yoshida

Hiroyuki Ehara

Tatsuya Kimura

Shoji Hiraoka

Shuji Morii

Satoru Fujii

Maki Yamada

Masakatsu Hoshimi

Kazuya Nomura

Katsuhiko Noda

Kenji Kaga

A code excited linear prediction type speech coder, which includes a seed storage that stores seeds used as an initial state of oscillation, and an oscillator that generates different vector sequences in accordance with values of the seeds stored in the seed storage and outputs the vector sequences as excitation vectors. The speech coder also includes a linear predictive coding synthesis filter that receives, as input, the excitation vectors, which are the vector sequences generated in accordance with the values of the seeds, that synthesizes the excitation vectors, and that outputs a synthesized speech.

Excitation vector generator, speech coder and speech decoder

The present invention aims to effectively restrict access of a general user to an inappropriate information piece at the judgment of an information manager. In order to pick up a desired information from an information storage medium or an information communication network while excluding inappropriate information, an information manager inputs suitability of information (a teacher signal) to an information presented at a user terminalto a group profile learning unitand prepares a group profile reflecting suitability of the information as specified by the information manager using the teacher signal. At a score calculating unit, a score signal indicating suitability of information is calculated for each information using the group profile, and access of an information user in a group to inappropriate information is restricted.

Information filtering system and information filtering method

A random code vector reading section and a random codebook of a conventional CELP type speech coder/decoder are respectively replaced with an oscillator for outputting different vector streams in accordance with values of input seeds, and a seed storage section for storing a plurality of seeds. This makes it unnecessary to store fixed vectors as they are in a fixed codebook (ROM), thereby considerably reducing the memory capacity.

The present mechanism aims to effectively restrict access of a general user to an inappropriate information piece at the judgment of an information manager. In order to pick up a desired information from an information storage medium or an information communication network while excluding inappropriate information, an information manager inputs suitability of information (a teacher signal) to an information presented at a user terminal to a group profile learning unit and prepares a group profile reflecting suitability of the information as specified by the information manager using the teacher signal. At a score calculating unit, a score signal indicating suitability of information is calculated for each information using the group profile, and access of an information user in a group to inappropriate information is restricted.

Method and apparatus for producing component of excitation vector

The present invention aims to effectively restrict access of a general user to an inappropriate information piece at the judgment of an information manager. In order to pick up a desired information from an information storage medium or an information communication network while excluding inappropriate information, an information manager inputs suitability of information (a teacher signal) to an information presented at a user terminal to a group profile learning unit and prepares a group profile reflecting suitability of the information as specified by the information manager using the teacher signal. At a score calculating unit a score signal indicating suitability of information is calculated for each information using the group profile, and access of an information user in a group to inappropriate information is restricted.

Information filtering for selectively limiting access

Method for providing excitation vector

The information filtering apparatus has a configuration having a metric dividing section which divides a matrix indicating that what items a user needed and did not need into a plurality of matrixes, and a classification information filtering unit which calculates a plurality of classification necessities and a plurality of classification reliabilities using the plurality of matrixes divided in the metric dividing section.

Information filtering apparatus and information filtering method

An inter-frame similarity between an input voice and a standard patterned word is calculated for each of frames and for each of standard patterned words, and a posterior probability similarity is produced by subtracting a constant value from each of the inter-frame similarities. The constant value is determined by analyzing voice data obtained from specified persons to set the posterior probability similarities to positive values when a word existing in the input voice matches with the standard patterned word and to set the posterior probability similarities to negative values when a word existing in the input voice does not match with the standard patterned word. Thereafter, an accumulated similarity having an accumulated value obtained by accumulating values of the posterior probability similarities according to a continuous dynamic programming matching operation for the frames of the input voice is calculated for each of the standard patterned words. Thereafter, a particular standard patterned word relating to an accumulated similarity having a maximum value among the accumulated similarities is output as a recognized word of the input voice.

Voice recognition method for recognizing a word in speech

In a method of speech recognition, an input speech signal is analyzed. A result of the analysis is collated with first predetermined standard patterns. A result of the collation is outputted as a sequence of similarities. The sequence of the similarities is handled as feature parameters of the input speech signal, and the feature parameters are collated with second predetermined standard patterns of all recognition objects. A final speech recognition result is generated in accordance with a result of the collation between the feature parameters and the second predetermined standard patterns.

Method of speech recognition with correlation of similarities

A method of speech recognition includes the steps of predetermining a series of parameters a.sub.1, a.sub.2, . . . , a.sub.J representative of standard patterns of speeches of preset words, where the letter J denotes a predetermined natural number; deriving parameters x.sub.i representative of data of respective frames of an input signal, the adscript i denotes a frame number; calculating similarities d.sub.j.sup.(i) between the parameters a.sub.j and the parameters x.sub.i, where j=1, 2, . . . , J; calculating parameters R.sub.j.sup.(i) for the respective preset words by referring to the following recurrence formulas:

Method of speech recognition

Power information from an input signal is used to detect the presence of speech. A reference point is established by the power information as the moment of detection of the start of speech. The end of a processing period for speech recognition is determined by a power information occurring after end of speech, so that feature parameters are extracted from the signal during the processing period having start and end points determined by the power information. Standard speech patterns of particular preset words are determined and similarities between the extracted feature parameters and the standard patterns are calculated and mutually compared. The selected preset word corresponds to a maximum of the similarities obtained during the processing period selected in accordance with the power information. The selected word is then outputted as the recognition result. Selection of the process time in accordance with the power information permits exclusion of some similarities in the speech recognition process, thereby preventing erroneous recognition which could occur in a long word having a portion similar to a short word.

Method and apparatus for speech recognition

Power information from an input signal is used to detect the presence of speech. A reference point is established as the moment of detection of the speech. During a period between the reference point and a subsequent point distant from the reference point by a predetermined range, the input signal is linearly changed to a corresponding signal having a predetermined period. Feature parameters are extracted from the signal with the predetermined period. The feature parameters are replaced by preset noise parameters in a portion having no speech component therein. Standard speech patterns of particular preset words are determined and similarities between the extracted feature parameters containing the noise parameters and the standard patterns are calculated and mutually compared. The foregoing steps are performed while the separations are varied within the predetermined range. Similar steps are performed as the reference point is shifted by a unit period, and similarities are calculated and mutually compared. Speech duration is detected by use of movement of the power information. A process end time is determined by use of the speech duration time and a time dependent variation in the similarities. The selected preset word corresponds to a maximum of the similarities obtained when the reference point reaches the process end time. The selected word is then outputted as the recognition result.

Disclosed is a speech recognition apparatus comprising: a speech analysis portion for extracting parameters necessary for determination of spoken words; a speech period detecting portion for extracting one or more combinations of speech periods using the parameters; and a structure analysis portion for detecting feature points indicative of phoneme structure of each word and for determining a word through computation of similarity to proposed words in accordance with the presence and absence of the feature points. Therefore, erroneous recognition due to noise introduction or the like can be reduced by detecting one or more combinations of proposed speech periods by the speech period detecting portion. By extracting only necessary number of extracting points, which contribute to the distinguishment between words, with reference to analysis procedure provided for each word, the sharpness of determination is bettered. More stable operation than conventional apparatus has been achieved in connection with time base expansion/compression. Small numbers of parameters obtained through speech analysis are used to reduce the amount of computation, while the above-mentioned parameters are stable against difference in phenemes due to difference in speakers.

Apparatus for speech recognition

In this speech synthesizer which announces the time, storage and complexity is minimized by switching selection of fixed data and variable data from corresponding memories, to compose the phrase 'the time is five o'clock'.

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Sagamihara, Japan

Taisuke Watanabe