Voices From A Far Field

Returning after sixty-five years to the small Texas town from which he fled at age eighteen, Heck finds that life can be good for old clodhoppers after all. It might have a purpose in spite of the disappointments of the past.

3D Audio offers a detailed perspective of this rapidly developing arena. Written by many of the world’s leading researchers and practitioners, it draws from science, technologies, and creative practice to provide insight into cutting-edge research in 3D audio. Through exploring the intersection of these fields, the reader will gain insight into a number of research areas and professional practice in 3D sonic space. As such, the book acts both as a primer that enables readers to gain an understanding of various aspects of 3D audio, and can inform students and audio enthusiasts, but its deep treatment of a diverse range of topics will also inform professional practitioners and academics beyond their core specialisms. The chapters cover areas such as an Ambisonics, binaural technologies and approaches, psychoacoustics, 3D audio recording, composition for 3D space, 3D audio in live sound, broadcast, and movies – and more. Overall, this book offers a definitive insight into an emerging sound world that is increasingly becoming part of our everyday lives.

If you're a new or experienced designer of conversational voice first experiences, this handy reference provides actionable answers to key aspects of eyes-busy, hands-busy, voice-only user interfaces. Designed as a companion to books about conversational voice design, this guide includes important details regarding eyes-free, hands-free, voice-only interfaces delivered by Amazon Echo, Google Nest, and a variety of in-car experiences. Authors Ahmed Bouzid and Weiye Ma provide far-field voice best practices and recommendations in a manner similar to The Elements of Style, the popular American English writing style guide. Like that book, The Elements of Voice First Style provides direct, succinct explanations that focus on the essence of each topic. You'll find answers quickly without having to spend time searching through other sources. With this guide, you'll be able to: Craft just the right language to enable your voicebot to effectively communicate with humans Create conversational voice interfaces that are robust enough to handle errors and failures Design highly usable conversational voice interfaces by paying attention to small details that can make or break the experience Build a design for a voice-only smart speaker that doesn't require customers to use their eyes or hands

Make your every wish Alexa’s command with this in-depth guide to the wildly popular Amazon smart speaker You might be thinking, “All I have to do is plug in my Echo device and start using it!” And you’d be right. But if you really want to explore what that compact little device can do, then Alexa For Dummies is your go-to resource. This book shows you how to customize your device to respond to your requests and enhance your life. Alexa For Dummies takes you on a tour of all things Alexa: its capabilities, tools, settings, and skills. Go beyond the basics of playing music, calling friends, reading the news, and checking the weather. You’ll learn how to make Alexa private and secure, connect it to your smart home devices, and even make it sound like Samuel L. Jackson, if you feel like it. You can also extend its capabilities by adding new skills. Customize your device to respond to your voice Troubleshoot when a light is signaling something’s wrong Add skills to play music and audiobooks Create routines to turn on lights, adjust the thermostat, set your security alarm, and lock your doors Sync your smart devices throughout your home Use Alexa to connect to a Zoom meeting or phone call with your friends or family No matter which device you have—Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show, Echo Studio, Echo Flex, Echo Loop, Echo Buds, or Echo Frames—Alexa For Dummies is the perfect companion. Ready to get started? Say “Hey, Alexa, order Alexa For Dummies!”

This book provides readers with the basic understanding regarding the threats to the voice processing systems, the state-of-the-art defense methods as well as the current research results on securing voice processing systems.It also introduces three mechanisms to secure the voice processing systems against malicious voice attacks under different scenarios, by utilizing time-domain signal waves, frequency-domain spectrum features, and acoustic physical attributes. First, the authors uncover the modulated replay attack, which uses an inverse filter to compensate for the spectrum distortion caused by the replay attacks to bypass the existing spectrum-based defenses. The authors also provide an effective defense method that utilizes both the time-domain artifacts and frequency-domain distortion to detect the modulated replay attacks. Second, the book introduces a secure automatic speech recognition system for driverless car to defeat adversarial voice command attacks launched from car loudspeakers, smartphones, and passengers. Third, it provides an acoustic compensation system design to reduce the effects from the spectrum reduction attacks, by the audio spectrum compensation and acoustic propagation principle. Finally, the authors conclude with their research effort on defeating the malicious voice attacks and provide insights into more secure voice processing systems. This book is intended for security researchers, computer scientists, and electrical engineers who are interested in the research areas of biometrics, speech signal processing, IoT security, and audio security. Advanced-level students who are studying these topics will benefit from this book as well.

This two-volume set constitutes a state-of-the-art survey in the field of speaker classification, addressing many critical questions. The twenty-two articles of the second volume cover a number of areas, including gender recognition systems, emotion recognition, text-dependent speaker verification systems, an analysis of both speaker and verbal content information, and accent identification.

In Animal Minds, Donald R. Griffin takes us on a guided tour of the recent explosion of scientific research on animal mentality. Are animals consciously aware of anything, or are they merely living machines, incapable of conscious thoughts or emotional feelings? How can we tell? Such questions have long fascinated Griffin, who has been a pioneer at the forefront of research in animal cognition for decades, and is recognized as one of the leading behavioral ecologists of the twentieth century. With this new edition of his classic book, which he has completely revised and updated, Griffin moves beyond considerations of animal cognition to argue that scientists can and should investigate questions of animal consciousness. Using examples from studies of species ranging from chimpanzees and dolphins to birds and honeybees, he demonstrates how communication among animals can serve as a "window" into what animals think and feel, just as human speech and nonverbal communication tell us most of what we know about the thoughts and feelings of other people. Even when they don't communicate about it, animals respond with sometimes surprising versatility to new situations for which neither their genes nor their previous experiences have prepared them, and Griffin discusses what these behaviors can tell us about animal minds. He also reviews the latest research in cognitive neuroscience, which has revealed startling similarities in the neural mechanisms underlying brain functioning in both humans and other animals. Finally, in four chapters greatly expanded for this edition, Griffin considers the latest scientific research on animal consciousness, pro and con, and explores its profound philosophical and ethical implications.

Artificial Intelligence in Schools is the first book to explore the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a tool to enhance K–12 instruction and administration. Every industry and sector will be drastically affected by the presence of artificial intelligence, and schooling is no exception! Written for the in-service community—leaders, administrators, coaches, and teachers alike—this is your one-stop opportunity to make sure you don’t fall behind the fast pace and promising innovations of today’s most advanced learning technology. Author Varun Arora presents AI as a problem-solving tool for teaching and learning, exploring its potential and application in real-world school contexts and in the language of educators. Covering curriculum development, feedback and scoring, student empowerment, behavioral and classroom management, college readiness, and more, the book is full of novel insights and concrete, strategic takeaways.