AT&T Labs Research - December 2012

Attacking Asthma with Advanced Telehealth Monitoring

by: R. R. Miller, Mon Dec 17 13:36:00 EST 2012

Those who suffer from asthma may soon benefit from a device that warns that an asthma attack is likely. The devicemaker? AT&T.

As healthcare becomes increasingly data-driven thanks to a new generation of inexpensive sensors, it will require a medical communications infrastructure to securely transmit sensor data to where it’s needed—to doctors, hospitals, and medical researchers. AT&T Research is laying the groundwork now, not just for the asthma device, but for a whole host of other sensor-based devices that will transform healthcare. Read more.

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Easy Remote: Television’s First Killer App

With hundreds of channels, how do you find what you want to watch?

It's easy if you’re an AT&T U-verse^® TV customer because you can now use the Easy Remote app to turn your iPhone or iPad into a voice-controlled remote. Just say what you want, and Easy Remote will return a list of shows matching your search criteria. Easy Remote relies on AT&T WATSON^SM and other AT&T Research technologies, and was productized with help from the AT&T Foundry. Read more

Three from AT&T Research Named IEEE Fellow

Three from AT&T Research were elevated by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) to the status of IEEE Fellow, the highest grade of membership.

Ramón Cáceres was recognized for contributions to mobile computing and communications, Enrico Bocchieri for contributions to computational models for speech recognition, and Saeed S. Ghassemzadeh for contributions to measurement and modeling of broadband wireless channels and their applications to system design.

How Goldilocks is Driving Text-to-Speech Technology

When it comes to machine-generated speech, three-year-olds might be the toughest critics around; they expect a witch to sound scary and for a wolf to huff and puff.

Current text-to-speech (TTS) systems are not up to the challenge of expressing the often strong emotions in children’s stories. With StorEBook, AT&T researchers are using word prominence to add expression, pleasing the young set while improving TTS for everyone. Read more

Profiles in Innovation: AT&T researcher Lana Yarosh

Lana Yarosh wants to make positive changes in people's lives by making communications technologies more engaging and more fun for families. New to AT&T Labs - Research, she has the requisite expertise in computer science, but she also has a background in design and psychology, giving her more insight into understanding people and what they want out of technology. In this profile, she talks about how her background helps her as an AT&T researcher.

Profiles in Innovation: AT&T Researcher Taniya Mishra

Taniya Mishra’s work and life revolve around language and, now, children. A speech researcher who speaks five languages, she works on expressive speech synthesis (see profile). Her StorEBook project, a children's e-reader, explores how best to make voices embody a character’s emotions so a wolf sounds scary and a teacup sounds cute. Her own children (serving as a built-in user base) love the "story game" though probably miss its larger goal—improving speech synthesis for everyone.

Profiles in Innovation: Emiliano Miluzzo

Inspired by the engineers in his family and by the study of math and science, Emiliano Miluzzo wants to make a big impact on the lives of millions of people.

He may get his chance. As an AT&T researcher focused on mobile devices and pervasive computing, he’s using the latest machine-learning and interface techniques to create entirely new ways for devices and people to interact. As he says in this profile, the goal is to improve daily life in many dimensions.