Abstract:
A mechanism is described for employing and facilitating placing a sensor cover over an external sensor of a computing device. A method of embodiments of the invention includes sensing, at a sensor of a computing device, user touches to an outer surface of an impregnated sensor cover placed over the sensor, wherein the sensor cover includes a plurality of holes through the outer surface and a plurality of conductive leads corresponding to the plurality of holes, and wherein sensing is performed through one or more of the plurality of holes and their one or more corresponding conductive leads; and facilitating an action in response to each of the sensed user touches.
Abstract:
Certain embodiments of the invention may include systems, methods, and apparatus for directing sound in a vehicle. According to an example embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for steering sound within a vehicle. The method includes receiving one or more images from at least one camera attached to the vehicle; locating, from the one or more images, one or more body features associated with one or more occupants of the vehicle; generating at least one signal for controlling one or more sound transducers; and routing, based at least on the locating, the one or more generated signals to the one or more sound transducers for directing sound waves to at least one of the one or more body features.
Abstract:
Speech recognition systems and/or techniques are provided in which grammar elements and/or speech inputs are targeted to selected functions. One or more input capture devices facilitate the collection of user input associated with a vehicle, and a vehicle function may be selected based upon received user input. A subset of available grammar elements that are associated with audible commands for the selected function may then be identified and utilized to evaluate received audio input. In this regard, speech recognition may be targeted to the selected function.
Abstract:
Methods, systems, and apparatus are provided for communicating between one or more vehicles, including providing communicated information to a user of the one or more vehicles. The information may be presented to the user via one or more user interfaces.
Abstract:
A mechanism is described for employing and facilitating a sensor pad transparently placed at a touch panel of a computing device. A method of embodiments of the invention includes sensing a use of a sensor pad transparently placed over and within a dedicated section of a touch panel of a computing device. The sensor pad and its relevant sensor pad interaction may be employed using hardware of the touch panel, the use including touching of the sensor pad by a user, while sensing may include detecting a change at one or more intersecting points of a plurality of intersecting points. The method may further include facilitating an action in response to the use of the sensor pad.
Abstract:
Embodiments may be a standalone module or part of mobile devices, desktop computers, servers, stereo systems, or any other systems that might benefit from condensed audio presentations of item structures such as lists or tables. Embodiments may comprise logic such as hardware and/or code to adjust the temporal characteristics of items comprising words. The items maybe included in a structure such as a text listing or table, an audio listing or table, or a combination thereof, or may be individual words or phrases. For instance, embodiments may comprise a keyword extractor to extract keywords from the items and an abbreviations generator to generate abbreviations based upon the keywords. Further embodiments may comprise a text-to-speech generator to generate audible items based upon the abbreviations to render to a user while traversing the item structure.
Abstract:
An indoor location awareness method for locating a device using device-observable signals of known proximity sensors and device-unobservable signals of known proximity sensors. The exclusion of the possibility that the device is within an unobservable proximity sensor's range increases the knowledge of the device's true location. In addition to defining the location of the device, the device can predict the arrival and departure of unobservable proximity sensors as it moves throughout the environment.
Abstract:
A method of automatically calibrating a microphone having a microphone input gain comprises the steps of receiving an input signal generated by the microphone in response to an audio input, sampling the input signal to produce a plurality of samples, detecting a plurality of instances of voice energy in the samples, creating a power density function (PDF) from the detected instances of voice energy, wherein the acquired signal level differs from a predefined voice reference level by an offset amount, and adjusting the value of the input gain so that the acquired signal level equals the predefined voice reference level. The step of detecting a plurality of instances of voice energy comprises the step of generating a noise floor by creating a noise power density function (NPDF) from the samples. The NPDF is based on a relationship between an approximate peak power level of the signal and a current power level of the signal and based on a plurality of standard deviation values of the signal, each of the standard deviation values corresponding to one of a plurality of time intervals. The NPDF is repeatedly updated to produce a current state of the NPDF to update the noise floor. If a predetermined relationship exists between the current power level of the audio signal and the updated noise floor, an instance of voice energy is detected.
Abstract:
Certain embodiments of the invention may include systems, methods, and apparatus for in vehicle fiducial mark tracking and interpretation According to an example embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for executing computer executable instructions by one or more processors. The method includes receiving the one or more images from at least one camera attached to a vehicle; selecting, from the one or more received images, a region of interest associated with an object in the vehicle; identifying fiducial marks within the selected region of interest by comparing the identified fiducial marks with one or more stored fiducial representations; determining, based at least in part on the comparison, spatial information associated with the object or an occupant of the vehicle; and sending information based at least in part on the determined spatial information.