feature vector at each frame consists of the greater of each band's signal energy and an estimated background noise energy level in the band. The noise estimator is taken, with attribution, from the prior art. The resulting test feature vectors are selectively normalized and compared with the tem- plate feature vectors using a kind of center clipping, which reduces the noise sensitivity.--DLR

4,962,535

43.72.Ne VOICE RECOGNITION SYSTEM

Shinta Kimura and Toru Sanada, assignors to Fujitsu Limited 9 October 1990 (Class 381/43); filed in Japan 10 March 1987

This phoneme-based, template-matching, word recognition system is based on a separation of the phoneroes into two classes, an easy-to-spot high-accuracy class and a more difficult class with greater confusability. On a first pass, phonemes from the more distinctive class are spotted in the analyzed input feature vectors. The results of this pass are used for a dictio- nary search, which normally returns many candidate word templates. A more thorough comparison is then done, expanding the criteria to include phonemes from the more difficult class.--DLR

4,961,229

43.72.Pf SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEM UTILIZING IC CARDS FOR STORING UNIQUE VOICE PATTERNS

Tsutomu Takahashi, assignor to NEC Corporation 2 October 1990 (Class 381/42); filed in Japan 24 September 1985

This speaker verification system compares a person's voice with a ref- erence pattern stored in an electronic ID card. The user places his or her ID card in a reader and then speaks a well-chosen phrase into a nearby micro- phone. The voice is compared with the stored pattern in a manner as de- scribed in United States Patent No. 3,816,722. This patent is quite general in approach, dealing with very few implementation details.--DLR

5,063,821

43.75.Hi MOUNTING ARRANGEMENT FOR PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS

A. Kainin Battle, Fort Ord, CA 12 November 1991 (Class 84/723); filed 15 November 1989

This group of percussion instruments, a drum set, consists of a percus- sion surface 11 that serves as a bass drum, a number of tubular drums 12 mounted on supports 13, and conventional cymbals 15. A percussionist seated on stool 10 can strike the tubular drums 12 and cymbals with conven- tional drumsticks while striking percussion surface 11 with his feet instead

of playing drum pedals in the usual manner. Transducers 26 are mounted on the under side of percussion surface 11 for amplification of the shock and vibration of the surface. An operational advantage is that the percussionist can be seen by the audience instead of being hidden by a conventional bass drum.--DWM

5,036,742

43.75.St TEMPO MONITORING DEVICE AND ASSOCIATED METHOD

Phillip M. Youakim, Tonawanda, NY 6 August 1991 (Class 84/411R); filed 26 August 1987

This is a device 10 for monitoring the tempo of drum playing during musical performance. The case 16 has an upper portion 20 that hooks over the rim 86 of drum 12 with the end of the hook in contact with drumhead 82.

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3088 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 91, No. 5, May 1992 Patent Reviews 3088

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