Visual speech recognition and utterance segmentation based on mouth movement

This paper presents a vision-based approach to recognize speech without evaluating the acoustic signals. The proposed technique combines motion features and support vector machines (SVMs) to classify utterances. Segmentation of utterances is important in a visual speech recognition system. This research proposes a video segmentation method to detect the start and end frames of isolated utterances from an image sequence. Frames that correspond to `speaking' and `silence' phases are identified based on mouth movement information. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed visual speech recognition technique yields high accuracy in a phoneme classification task. Potential applications of such a system are, e.g., human computer interface (HCI) for mobility-impaired users, lip-reading mobile phones, in-vehicle systems, and improvement of speech-based computer control in noisy environments

Subtle hand gesture identification for HCI using temporal decorrelation source separation BSS of surface EMG

Hand gesture identification has various human computer interaction (HCI) applications. This paper presents a method for subtle hand gesture identification from sEMG of the forearm by decomposing the signal into components originating from different muscles. The processing requires the decomposition of the surface EMG by temporal decorrelation source separation (TDSEP) based blind source separation technique. Pattern classification of the separated signal is performed in the second step with a back propagation neural network. The focus of this work is to establish a simple, yet robust system that can be used to identify subtle complex hand actions and gestures for control of prosthesis and other HCI based devices. The proposed model based approach is able to overcome the ambiguity problems (order and magnitude problem) of BSS methods by selecting an a priori mixing matrix based on known hand muscle anatomy. The paper reports experimental results, where the system was able to reliably recognize different subtle hand gesture with an overall accuracy of 97%. The advantage of such a system is that it is easy to train by a lay user, and can easily be implemented in real time after the initial training. The paper also highlights the importance of mixing matrix analysis in BSS technique

Rubyrin macrocycles

The present invention is directed to the synthesis and use of novel macrocyclic compounds, based upon a new class of expanded porphyrins, termed rubyrins. Disclosed herein is the structure and synthesis of a prototypical rubyrin and various substituted rubyrin analogues, conjugates and compositions. Rubyrin itself is characterized by the presence of six pyrrolic subunits contained within a fully aromatic 26 .pi.-electron macrocyclic framework and by UV/VIS absorption bands that are very red-shifted as compared to those of other porphyrins or pentapyrrolic expanded porphyrins. The rubyrin-type class of compounds is further characterized by an ability to undergo facile protonation at the pyrrolic nitrogens and, once protonated, by an ability to form complexes with anions such as nucleotide-containing compounds. Rubyrin-based compounds are useful as, for example, anion chelators and receptors and as transporters for various anionic compounds including antiviral agents. In addition to the 26 .pi.-electron target system, the present invention concerns other oxidation states bearing the same connectivity and the same total number of non-hydrogen atoms, and various analogues in which different substituents are present at the various meso and/or .beta.-pyrrolic positions or in which furan and/or thiophene moieties replace one or more of the six pyrrolic subunits.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste

Dibenzyl 3,3′,4,4′-tetra­methyl-5,5′-(ethynedi­yl)bis­(pyrrole-2-carboxyl­ate)

The title mol­ecule, C30H28N2O4, has crystallographic twofold rotation symmetry, with the pyrrole planes forming a dihedral angle of 40.49 (4)°. The pyrrole N—H donor and adjacent ester carbonyl acceptor form R 2 2(10) hydrogen-bonded rings about inversion centers, leading to chains of hydrogen-bonded mol­ecules along [001]

Lack of detectable neoantigen depletion signals in the untreated cancer genome.

Somatic mutations can result in the formation of neoantigens, immunogenic peptides that are presented on the tumor cell surface by HLA molecules. These mutations are expected to be under negative selection pressure, but the extent of the resulting neoantigen depletion remains unclear. On the basis of HLA affinity predictions, we annotated the human genome for its translatability to HLA binding peptides and screened for reduced single nucleotide substitution rates in large genomic data sets from untreated cancers. Apparent neoantigen depletion signals become negligible when taking into consideration trinucleotide-based mutational signatures, owing to lack of power or to efficient immune evasion mechanisms that are active early during tumor evolution

Preface

After thirty years of running and pushing forward the educational model of th