AT&T Labs Research - Winter 2012

Four AT&T Reseachers Named IEEE, ACM Fellows

by: Staff, Fri Dec 09 13:57:00 EST 2011

Charles R. Kalmanek and Mazin Gilbert have been named IEEE Fellows, the highest grade of IEEE membership and reserved for those demonstrating outstanding proficiency in their field.

The ACM granted a similar honor to Divesh Srivastava and Howard Karloff, naming both ACM Fellows in recognition for their contributions to computing.

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Paper points to new ways to verify visualizations

Errors in visualizations used to verify large-scale data analysis are often the result of the limitations of underlying visualization algorithms and techniques. These errors can be hard to find.

In this paper presented at InfoViz in October, Carlos Scheidegger and co-authors propose using topological properties as a more robust verification technique.

Geocast: A technology for when disaster strikes

Disasters often knock out power and communications, making it difficult for rescue personnel to communicate with one another or to locate survivors.

This MSNBC video (at 4:03) shows how Geocast, an ad hoc network protocol, can enable smart phones to communicate even in the absence of cell towers and other fixed infrastructure.

Study looks at speaking rates and TTS intelligibility

AT&T researchers, along with the ASA Text-to-Speech (TTS) Technology working group (S3-WG91), are collecting data comparing the intelligibility of seven different synthetic speech systems at various speaking rates. The aim is to make TTS more usable by all, including users of mobile devices, children with learning disabilities, people with visual disabilities (see paper) or hearing impairments.

To participate, click here or, if you are legally blind, here.

AT&T WATSON is coming to cars

The AT&T WATSON^SM speech and language engine is being incorporated into a prototype voice-enabled mobile virtual assistant for use by automotive manufacturers.

To help reduce driver distraction, AT&T is working with Panasonic Automotive and QNX Software to let drivers use voice commands for text messaging, web browsing, updating social media, and other tasks, including controlling GSP and radio. See the press release for more information.

Content Augmenting Media presented at Capitol Hill

AT&T’s patented CAM technology brings users the TV content they want to watch. CAM collects content from providers, analyzes it against keyword-based profiles created by users, then delivers personalized network streams to users' TVs or mobile devices. No more searching forever for programs to watch. CAM will be on display at the 15th Annual Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee Technology Exhibition, January 25, 5-7 PM in the Hart Senate Office Building, Room 902.