A time-division multiplexer-demultiplexer for duplex video recording and playback

A solid state circuit is described that allows two sources of video information to be multiplexed and recorded by one videotape machine. On playback, the same circuit is used to demultiplex the recorded video signal so that each of the original video channels may be independently viewed on separate television monitors.     

Performance of a computer system for recording eye fixations using limbus reflection

A computer system was developed to measure and record locus and duration of the eye axis of gaze using a limbus reflection technique. System hardware and operating procedures for on-line data collection and correction are described. Algorithms are presented that separate fixations from movements. Based on these algorithms, system performance was measured in terms of spatial accuracy of eye fixations and temporal accuracy of saccadic movements.     

A multiprocessor system for generating visual displays and controlling experiments

A laboratory is described that is based on an IMSAI 8080 microcomputer and an IMLAC graphics display system. Procedures for using the system are described and illustrated.     

Use of a notation system for digital control and recording

This paper describes (1) a notation system for digital control and recording, (2) some improvements to SKED, and (3) future developments and uses of minicomputers.     

A durable recording and feedback system

A durable low-cost data-recording and feedback system is described. Data transcribed with a special pen onto a plastic sheet can be removed only with two solvents. These data can be displayed for feedback purposes without fear of destruction.     

Variation in the speech signal as a window into the cognitive architecture of language production

The pronunciation of words is highly variable. This variation provides crucial information about the cognitive architecture of the language production system. This review summarizes key empirical findings about variation phenomena, integrating corpus, acoustic, articulatory, and chronometric data from phonetic and psycholinguistic studies. It examines how these data constrain our current understanding of word production processes and highlights major challenges and open issues that should be addressed in future research.     

BORES: Behavior observation recording and editing system

This paper describes the use of a Datamyte 900 solid state data collection system for observational research. Data editing and reformatting programs that organize the behavioral data into a consistent format for use with widely available statistical packages and edit the data for logical inconsistencies are discussed. Data collection using both the focal animal observation and group scanning, or scan-sample, techniques are amenable to this approach.     

A system for recording individualized behavioral data in a token program

A data matrix system used to record and summarize individual behavioral data is described. The major characteristics of the system are: (1) it provides a place to record and summarize all patient token exchanges, whether for standard contingencies or for idiosyncratic behavior; (2) it serves as a record and summary for time samples observed during a 24-hr period and as a record of reliability data on time sample measures; (3) it provides a place where the new token balance for each patient can be calculated and recorded for use the next day; (4) it provides for calculation of an individual patient's token balance at any given moment; and (5) it is a permanent record of each patient's daily participation in the program and documents progress in terms of his economic status as well as in changes in critical target behaviors.     

A computer-compatible multichannel event counting and digital recording system

An inexpensive multichannel event counting digital recording system has been designed for compatibility with automated data analysis equipment. For as many as 16 channels, events are simultaneously summed over preselected repetitive time intervals and recorded. Each data entry is marked with the time of day and a code identifying each channel’s data. The data is formated to be computer compatible and is logged on inexpensive readily available digital magnetic tape cassettes.     

A three-electrode system for EKG recording and aversive shock

The use of three electrodes to produce digitizable EKG’s and to deliver shocks to the tail of the monkey is described. Cardiac signals are taken from a head electrode and a “ground” tail electrode. Shock is administered through a “hot” tail electrode and the “ground” tail electrode.     

Hearing a face: cross-modal speaker matching using isolated visible speech

An experiment was performed to test whether cross-modal speaker matches could be made using isolated visible speech movement information. Visible speech movements were isolated using a point-light technique. In five conditions, subjects were asked to match a voice to one of two (unimodal) speaking point-light faces on the basis of speaker identity. Two of these conditions were designed to maintain the idiosyncratic speech dynamics of the speakers, whereas three of the conditions deleted or distorted the dynamics in various ways. Some of these conditions also equated video frames across dynamically correct and distorted movements. The results revealed generally better matching performance in the conditions that maintained the correct speech dynamics than in those conditions that did not, despite containing exactly the same video frames. The results suggest that visible speech movements themselves can support cross-modal speaker matching.     

Building a controllable expressive speech synthesis system with multiple emotion strengths

Emotion is considered to be an essential element in the performance of human-computer interactions. In expressive synthesis speech, it is important to generate emotional speech that reflects subtle and complex emotional states. However, there has been limited research on how to effectively synthesize emotional speech using different levels of emotion strength with intuitive control, which is difficult to be modeled effectively. In this paper, we explore an expressive speech synthesis model that can be used to produce speech with multiple emotion strengths. Unlike previous studies that encoded emotions into discrete codes, we propose an embedding vector to continuously control the emotion strength, which is a data-driven method to synthesize speech with a fine control over the emotions. Compared with the models using the retraining technique or a one-hot vector, our proposed model using an embedding vector can explicitly learn the high-level emotion strength from the low-level acoustic features. As a result, we can control the emotion strength of synthetic speech in a relatively predictable and globally consistent way. The objective and subjective evaluation tests show that our proposed model achieves state-of-the-art performance in terms of model flexibility and controllability.     

Fast face detection using a unified architecture for unconstrained and infrared face images

Human face detection along with its localization is a difficult task when the face is presented in the cluttered scene in an unconstrained scenario that might be with arbitrary pose variations, occlusions, random backgrounds and infrared (IR) environment. This paper proposes a novel face detection method which can address some of these issues and challenges quite successfully during face detection in unconstrained as well as infrared environments. It makes use of Fast Successive Mean Quantization Transform (FastSMQT) features for image enhancement and feature representation to deal with illumination and sensor insensitiveness. A split up Sparse Network of Winnows (SNoW) with Winnow updating rule is then exploited to speed up the original SNoW classifier. Finally, the features and classifiers are combined together with skin detection algorithm for face detection in crowd image and head orientation correction of near infrared faces. The proposed face detector is robust in handling pose, occlusion, illumination, blur and low image resolution. The experiment is performed on six challenging and publicly available databases, viz. BIOID, LFW, FDDB, UFI, WIDER FACE and IIT Delhi near infrared. The experimental results depict that the proposed method outperforms traditional as well as some advanced methods in detecting unconstrained and infrared faces under challenging situations.     

A microprocessor control and recording system for instrumental behavior research

This paper describes a miroprocessor system developed for experimental control and data collection in real time. By connecting the experimental equipment to the microprocessor via a serial communication interface, transmission of various animal test-chamber functions over greater distances with only a few cables is facilitated. The microprocessor is programmed on a host computer (PDP/8). A combined terminal station with a cassette deck is used for data and program storage.     

A simple encoding and recording system for small group observation

A simple and inexpensive system for coding and recording interaction patterns in small groups is described. It consists of a keyboard and a standard tape recorder, and it is capable of storing sequential data using up to 36 codes. Its main application is in the study of speaker-target patterns, but it can also be used in encoding up to 12 behavioral codes, or six speakers and 6 codes. The keyboard costs less than $200 and is used with conventional tape recorders and minicomputers available at most research sites.