142 results about "Objective measurement" patented technology

A method is provided for optimizing an objective measure used to estimate mean opinion score or naturalness of synthesized speech from a speech synthesizer. The method includes using an objective measure that has components derived directly from textual information used to form synthesized utterances. The objective measure has a high correlation with mean opinion score such that a relationship can be formed between the objective measure and corresponding mean opinion score. The objective measure is altered to provide a different function of textual information derived from the utterances so as to improve the relationship between the scores of the objective measure and subjective ratings of the synthesized utterances.

The present invention provides systems and methods for gathering, formatting, storing and/or distributing medical information. In one exemplary embodiment, the present invention provides for centralized maintenance of medical information derived from a patient visit, and for distributed access to various medical information by, for example, researchers, the patient, the patient's physician, a specialist, and/or other recipients. Thus, for example, a patient may visit their physician and during that visit the physician may read information from an implantable medical device associated with the patient, make other objective measurements of the patient, and record various subjective information about the patient. All of this information can be uploaded and maintained on a variably accessible system.

An objective, service-level specific voice call listening quality test scheme for a Voice Over IP (VOIP) network is presented. Test probes are deployed along the border of the VOIP network. Each test probe is capable of placing calls over the VOIP network to the other test probes at different levels of service and measuring call quality using an objective measurement algorithm such as PAMS or PSQM. The measurement results are collected on an ongoing basis to obtain information on the VOIP network's voice call quality. The information is compared to thresholds to measure performance against Service Level Agreement guarantees.

For measuring the influence of noise on the talking quality of a telephone link in a telecommunications network, a talker speech signal (s(t)) and a degraded speech signal (s'(t)) are fed to an objective measurement device (22) for obtaining an output signal (q) representing an estimated value of the talking quality. The degraded signal includes a returned signal (r(t)) originating from the network during transmission of the talker speech signal over the telephone link. The objective measurement carried out by the device is a modified PSQM-like measurement, which is modified as to include a modelling (32b) of masking effects in consequence of noise present in the returned signal. Preferably the modelling includes a noise suppression (42) carried out to a difference signal (D(t, f)) in the loudness density domain using a noise estimation (41).

A method of objectively quantifying assessments of joints having arthritis for purposes of assessment, diagnosis and treatment. The objective measurements utilize known imaging modalities including 3D scanning, thermal imaging, visible and near-infrared imaging and two-dimensional imaging to quantify swelling, heat distribution, erythema, and range or motion. The objective measurements can be combined in various ways to assess the extent of the disease and can be used to adjust treatment protocols.

A pain measurement and diagnostic system (PMD) for bioanalytical analysis of pain matrix activity and the autonomic nervous system to diagnose and validate patient treatments, health status and outcomes. The PMD is implemented using medical devices for measuring and reporting objective measurements of pain through patient monitoring and analyzing related biological, psychological, social, environmental, and demographic factors that may contribute to and effect physiological outcomes for patients and through the integrated and iterative analysis improve diagnosis of pain, the evaluation of related disease states, health status, and treatment options.

A method for enhancing vision of an eye includes a laser delivery system having a laser beam for ablating corneal material from the cornea of the eye. Measurements are made to determine an optical path difference between a plane wave and a wavefront emanating from the retina of the eye for a location at a surface of the cornea. An optical correction is provided to the laser delivery system for the location based on the optical path difference and refractive indices of media through which the wavefront passes. The optical correction includes dividing the optical path difference by a difference between an index of refraction of corneal material and an index of refraction of air. The laser beam is directed to the location on the surface of the cornea and corneal material ablated at the location in response to the optical correction to cause the wavefront to approximate the shape of the plane wave at that location.

A method and system for fitting and adjusting the operation of an acoustic hearing prosthesis or a hybrid electric and acoustic hearing prosthesis. A graphic user interface allows for the acoustic and electric fitting parameters to be viewed and adjusted in a comparable way. The method further allows for the parameters for acoustic stimulation of the acoustic channels to be adjusted in response to behavioural or objective measurement of responses to known stimuli, so as to achieve a desired response curve.

The present invention is directed to a system and method for monitoring perceived quality of a packet-switched voice service in a network. The method includes the step of receiving a packetized voice communication via the packet-switched voice service. At least one objective measurement is obtained from the received packetized voice communication. User perceived quality of voice data is derived from the at least one objective measurement. The user perceived quality of voice data is provided to a user. The steps of receiving, obtaining, deriving, and providing are performed in real-time.

In assessing the capability of an IP based network to support toll telephony service, objective measurements of Speech Quality are taken. A module is used with Voice over Packet equipment that allows performance of voice quality measurements in real-time without using any external test equipment. A reference signal that includes a marker and a voice test signal is sent through the network from one Voice over Packet equipment containing or connected to the module to another. The received marker is compared to the reference marker to identify the onset time of the received voice test signal. The received and reference voice test signals are processed to measure the quality of the network. This may be implemented using the processing power and memory resources present in Voice over Packet equipment giving the network administrator an enhanced test capability at each node of the network. Voice quality measurements may be generated in a transparent way for the callers in real-time under severely degraded conditions of the network.

The present invention relates to systems, devices and methods for acquiring, measuring, monitoring, processing and analyzing physiological signals. More particularly, the present invention relates to using physiological signals to determine a subject's response to various conditions, variables or constraints. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to monitoring the subject's external body motion and/or environmental factors and determining the amount of pain a subject is suffering as a result of the motion and factors. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a system, device and methods of quantifying a subject's pain to provide an objective measurement of the subject's pain. The present invention further relates to establishing and improving pain management protocols and therapy or treatment for the subject's pain based on the quantified pain measurement.

A probe comprising two spaced electrodes is provided between which electrical resistance through enamel, dentine or tooth tissue is measured. The electrodes comprise inner and outer coaxial electrodes spaced by an insulating layer. The diameter of the probe is preferably 1 mm. The tip of the probe may be shaped to match the surface being measured. The signal from the probe is A to D converted for analysis. The rate of change of resistance gives a measure of the rate of change of moisture level (porosity). The porosity is related to tooth sensitivity and so the system can provide an objective measurement of tooth sensitivity.

New methods and systems for objective measurements of video quality based on degradation of edge areas are provided. By observing that the human visual system is sensitive to degradation around edges, objective video quality measurement methods that measure degradation around edges are provided. In the present invention, an edge detection algorithm is first applied to the source video sequence to find edge areas. Then, the degradation of those edge areas is measured by computing a difference between the source video sequence and a processed video sequence. From this mean squared error, the PSNR is computed and used as video quality metric.

Auditory processing is used in conjunction with cognitive mapping to produce an objective measurement of speech quality that approximates a subjective measurement such as MOS. In order to generate a data model for measuring speech quality from a clean speech signal and a degraded speech signal, the clean speech signal is subjected to auditory processing to produce a subband decomposition of the clean speech signal; the degraded speech signal is subjected to auditory processing to produce a subband decomposition of the degraded speech signal; and cognitive mapping is performed based on the clean speech signal, the subband decomposition of the clean speech signal, and the subband decomposition of the degraded speech signal. Various statistical analysis techniques, such as MARS and CART, may be employed, either alone or in combination, to perform data mining for cognitive mapping. From the large number of features extracted from the distortion surface, MARS is employed to find a smaller subset of features to form the speech quality estimator. The subset of feature variables, together with the particular manner of combining them, are jointly optimized to produce a statistically consistent estimate (data model) of subjective opinion scores such as MOS.

A method for designing contact lenses is provided in which direct correlation is made between an individual's subjective assessment of the lens' performance with the objective measurement of one or both of on-eye lens position and eyelid movement. The method permits generation of lens designs that have enhanced on-eye stability in less time than conventional design methods.

Objective measurement methods and devices for predicting perceptual quality of speech signals degraded in speech processing/transporting systems have unreliable prediction results in cases where the degraded and reference signals show in between severe timbre differences. Improvement is achieved by applying a partial compensation step within in a signal processing stage using a frequency dependently clipped compensation factor for compensating power differences between the degraded and reference signals in the frequency domain. Preferably clipping values for clipping the compensation factor have larger frequency-dependency in a range of low frequencies with respect to a centre frequency of the human auditory system, than in a range of high frequencies.

Devices, systems, and methods determine the health of oral objects by providing objective measurements using a detachable probe body. The detachable probe body may isolate reusable system components (including an electromagnetic signal detection, signal transmission, energy generation, and or energy transmitting components) from the oral cavity, optionally by encasing at least a portion of one or more of these components in a sheath or the like. A window of the probe body maintains sterile isolation and transmits electromagnetic energy to and/or signals from the oral object. Accuracy can be enhanced by a clamp or other structure for engaging a surface of the oral object so as to maintain a fixed alignment between the signal receiver and the oral object.

A method for measuring of histamine in an epidermis comprising applying an adhesive article to an epithelium of a mammal; allowing for adherence of epithelial cells to the adhesive article; removing the adhesive article from the epithelium of the mammal; preparing the adhesive article using standard laboratory methods for extraction; extracting histamine from the epithelial cells adhered to said adhesive article; measuring histamine from the epithelial cells adhered to said adhesive article; determining the amount of histamine in the epithelial cells as compared to a baseline sample. Further, a method of objectively measuring the perception of itch in mammals and wherein there is a reduction in histamine from a baseline level which is directly proportional to a reduction in an itch perception.

Method and apparatus for measuring conditions within a structure to generate objective data indicative of an overall status of the structure. Aggregated objective measurements may quantify as built and experiential conditions of the structure over time. Utilizing objective measurements a determination is made of, among other things, compliance with applicable building codes. A remediation table is provided to assess the risk of noncompliance with the applicable building codes and to prescribe appropriate remedial actions. Alternatively a table of scaled alphanumeric ratings may be generated and associated with measured conditions within the structure.

A system for determining the hearing ability of an individual comprises a generator for generating a test stimulus signal, a hearing aid (2) having a digital signal processor for processing said test stimulus signal and converting it in order to output an acoustic stimulus signal, and a first synchronizing means. The system further comprises an electrophysiological instrument (1) having a second synchronizing means, and means (7) for establishing from said individual an evoked response to said acoustic signal. The first synchronizing means and said second synchronizing means exchange a synchronization signal in order to synchronize said evoked response to said acoustic stimulus signal. The invention also provides a hearing aid and a method for carrying out electrophysiological measurement of the hearing ability of an individual.

A method of objectively and subjectively monitoring noise and correspondingly level or loudness thereof in a product or assembly. The method includes placing a product on the vibration generator. Activating the vibration generator to move or shake the product to simulate usage conditions. A sound recording instrument measures and records the noise emitted by the product or assembly. Comparing an objective metric computed from the recorded noise with a threshold metric. Evaluating the vehicle to determine the noise source when the objective metric exceeds the threshold metric. Saving the objective metric along with the information relating to the source of the noise and necessary repairs for further evaluation and statistical analysis.