Speaker identification based on user context

Recognition of a person that issued a voice command is necessary for a device that implements a voice-based user interface to respond to the user command. This disclosure describes techniques that can be implemented by devices that provide a voice-based user interface, e.g., a smart home speaker, an appliance, etc. to recognize the identity of a person that issues a voice command. With user permission, user context data is obtained and used to determine the identity of the person. Such data can include, with user permission, location data, recent activity data, user interests, etc. Improvement in the identification of the person issuing a voice command enables the devices to provide an improved user experience

Weather or Not We Should Go Outside [3rd grade]

The purpose of this unit is for students to understand that daily weather conditions at a particular time and place can be observed, measured, and inform our decisions. This unit focuses of developing the skills to observe, measure, record, and compare weather conditions in different locations at the same time using meteorologists’ instruments and technology. The unit also focuses on recording and comparing weather data in graphs, tables, charts, and maps using a spreadsheet or presentation software. Technology This unit will require full class access to computers, internet connection, and spreadsheet or presentation software (i.e., Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint). Materials This unit will have a two-day lab that will require construction materials and tools to build homemade meteorologists’ instruments (i.e., cups, straws, soda bottles, clay, tape, pins, ribbon, construction paper, card stock, food coloring, rubbing alcohol, compass, ruler, clock, stop watch, scissors, thermometer, etc.). The two-day lab will also require testing stations that will require a box fan, oscillating fan, watering can with bucket, ice water, and warm water

South Dakota Farm and Home Research

Director\u27s Comments: Who should pay for new variety development? [p] 1Putting the information into your hands [p] 2Stresses on wheat attacked from many angles [p] 5Wheat research team in spotlight for freeze-resistance breakthrough [p] 8Northern Plains Biostress Lab on track; dedication September 17 [p] 10Ag land values holding strong [p] 12What\u27s the weather today? [p] 14https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/agexperimentsta_sd-fhr/1159/thumbnail.jp

South Dakota Farm & Home Research Index: 1978 - 1994

South Dakota Farm &Home Research Index 1978-1994 aids researchers, extension personnel, historians, librarians, and others in locating information about the research of the state\u27s Agricultural Experiment Station. It facilitates the identification of articles describing relevant research and researchers. South Dakota Farm & Home Research has been published by the Agricultural Experiment Station, South Dakota State University, Brookings, since 1949. The quarterly journal features brief reports on a wide variety of experiment station and university research activities focusing on agriculture and home economics. This index supplements the previous index to South Dakota Farm & Home Research, compiled by Leon Raney and Jane Kinch, which covers 1949 through 1977. It provides subject and author indexing of the contents of the journal from 1978 (volume 29, number 1) through 1994 (volume 45, number 3). All articles published in the journal during those years are indexed, resulting in approximately 1,900 subject and author index entries. All subject headings were assigned by the indexers. Although some title words may have been assigned as subject headings, this is not a title-keyword index. Approximately 450 subject headings appear in the index, including many cross-references, i.e., SEE and SEE ALSO references. Most articles are listed under more than one subject heading to facilitate access. The author index lists articles under the names of all authors or coauthors. Therefore, an article written by five coauthors, is listed in the author index under each of the five names. Articles which do not identify the author(s) are not listed in the author index

La motivation pour la langue étrangère à l'école primaire : apprentissage en autonomie à l'ordinateur

Cette étude empirique de l'effet des activités médiées par ordinateur pour la motivation en apprentissage de l'anglais langue étrangère à l'école primaire en France s'inspire de l'offre grandissante de jeux en ligne conçus à cet effet. Les participants sont dix-huit élèves d'une classe multi-niveaux qui ont travaillé en autonomie à l'ordinateur ; nous mesurons leur reconnaissance lexicale, leur capacité à interagir oralement et leurs motivations avant et après l'intervention. Nous comparons ensuite les performances d'un groupe test travaillant sur des activités d'anglais en ligne avec celles d'un groupe de contrôle travaillant sur une cyberquête en français. Nous notons des performances supérieures pour le groupe test sur quelques mesures et pour certains types de motivation, notamment pour les apprenants avec un goût prononcé pour le travail à l'ordinateur et pour ceux qui sont attachés à l'enseignant mais qui ont un faible sentiment d'efficacité personnelle pour l'anglais. Ces résultats nous encouragent à poursuivre l'étude de l'utilité des jeux en ligne pour l'apprentissage de l'anglais langue étrangère ainsi que l’étude de la relation entre motivation et apprentissage des langues à l'école primaire.The widespread availability of web-based games for learning English provided the impetus for this empirical study of the effectiveness of such activities for motivation and acquisition in young learners in a French primary school context. Eighteen pupils aged 7 to 11 in an experimental EFL class participated in a study of autonomous learning by computer, using measures of lexical recognition, oral interaction, and motivation. The group working on web-based EFL games outperformed a control group using webquests in French on some measures, with the best results obtained by learners with special motivation for computers and those with low self-efficacy for learning English but strong affiliation for the teacher. The results support further research into the utility of web-based games in the EFL classroom and the relationship between motivation and learning in the primary second language classroom

"Alexa is a Toy": Exploring Older Adults' Reasons for Using, Limiting, and Abandoning Echo

Intelligent voice assistants (IVAs) have the potential to support older adults' independent living. However, despite a growing body of research focusing on IVA use, we know little about why older adults become IVA non-users. This paper examines the reasons older adults use, limit, and abandon IVAs (i.e., Amazon Echo) in their homes. We conducted eight focus groups, with 38 older adults residing in a Life Plan Community. Thirty-six participants owned an Echo for at least a year, and two were considering adoption. Over time, most participants became non-users due to their difficulty finding valuable uses, beliefs associated with ability and IVA use, or challenges with use in shared spaces. However, we also found that participants saw the potential for future IVA support. We contribute a better understanding of the reasons older adults do not engage with IVAs and how IVAs might better support aging and independent living in the future

Patterns of Perception

Our ordinary concept of perception contains a seeming tension: we distinguish perception from thought on the grounds that it is a direct awareness of mind-independent objects through their effects on our senses; yet we also allow that what we see (hear, feel, etc) is determined by how we interpret or classify the data that comes through our senses. Theorists of perception disagree over which of these intuitions should prevail, with some maintaining that concepts are in play all the way down and others that perceptual awareness is wholly immediate and concrete. But we do not have to choose. This dissertation argues that the patterns of perception sustain a distinctive form of nonconceptual classification, in which property spaces organize sensory matter so as to preserve rather than discard its concreteness and detail. What then is classification without concepts? What sort of abstraction, generality, representation, or form does it entail? And what ramifications then for thinking about the roots of language and reason, and of our awareness of the external world

Problems with Science Teaching and Learning for English Language Learners in One Diverse Elementary School

This qualitative study centered on science instruction and learning that occurred in a Title I elementary school in a suburban district in southeast Texas. Twelve teachers were interviewed in order to understand their perceptions of their classroom practices in terms of science instruction and learning for English Language Learners (ELL). This study also analyzed information gathered from teacher lesson plan and classroom observations. The participants' awareness of the instructional practices necessary for ELL student achievement in science was evident through analysis of interview transcripts. However, after observation of actual classroom instruction, it became apparent that the teaching and learning in most classrooms was not reflective of this awareness. This study proposes that this disconnect may be a result of a lack of quality professional development available to the teachers. The study also outlines and describes the characteristics of quality professional development and its relationship to focused instruction and continuous student improvement