1. A speech processing system comprising:
an audible environment including at least one microphone for receiving speech input and at least one speaker for audibly presenting speech output;
a white noise generator configured to generate white noise that is audibly presented in the audible environment;
a white noise removal engine configured to digitally preprocess speech input captured by the microphone and to remove the white noise components included in the captured input; and
a speech processing system for processing the speech input after being preprocessed by the white noise removal engine and for creating the speech output.
2. The speech processing system of claim 1, wherein the white noise removal engine receives input of a signal generated by the white noise generator, wherein the received signal is subtracted from the speech input to remove the white noise components.
3. The speech processing system of claim 2, wherein the white noise removal engine is configured to perform at least one transformation to account for audible changes between white noise contributions received by the microphone and the white noise of the received signal.
4. The speech processing system of claim 1, wherein the volume level of the white noise presented in the audible environment is configurable.
5. The speech processing system of claim 4, wherein the white noise is audibly presented at an approximately constant volume.
6. The speech processing system of claim 5, wherein the configurable volume level of the white noise establishes a volume floor for the speech processing system.
7. The speech processing system of claim 4, wherein the volume level of the white noise is controllable by the speech processing system.
8. The speech processing system of claim 4, wherein a different speaker is used to audibly present the speech output than a speaker that is used to audibly present the white noise, and wherein a volume level of the speech output is programmatically linked to the volume level of the white noise.
9. The speech processing system of claim 1, wherein the white noise generator, the white noise removal engine, and the speech processing system reside within a same computer device, wherein the speaker and the microphone are communicatively linked to the computing device.
10. A method for using artificially generated white noise to raise a noise floor of a speech processing system comprising:
audibly presenting artificially generated noise at a configurable volume level to establish a noise floor for an acoustic environment;
receiving audible input containing speech obtained from the acoustic environment;
digitally processing the input containing speech to remove the artificially generated noise from the input; and
audibly presenting output containing artificially generated speech to the acoustic environment, wherein the artificially generated speech is generated by a speech processing system, and wherein the speech processing system receives the processed input.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the presented artificially generated noise is presented at an approximately constant volume level.
12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:
sampling input from the acoustic environment to determine an ambient noise level;
automatically calculating a desired noise floor based upon results of the sampling step; and
automatically adjusting the configurable volume level to achieve the desired noise floor.
13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:
a noise removal engine receiving a signal from a noise generator, which generates the artificially generated noise, said signal including a waveform of the artificially generated noise; and
digitally subtracting the waveform of the artificially generated noise from the received audible input.
14. The method of claim 10, wherein said steps of claim 1 are performed by at least one machine in accordance with at least one computer program having a plurality of code sections that are executable by the at least one machine.
15. The method of claim 10, wherein the steps of claim 10 are performed by at least one of a service agent and a computing device manipulated by the service agents, the steps being performed in response to a service request.
16. A method for improving a user’s experience with a speech-enabled system using artificially generated white noise comprising:
producing white noise in an acoustic environment at an established volume level;
audibly presenting automatically generated speech output in the acoustic output;
capturing speech input from the acoustic environment;
removing the white noise from the captured input to generate clean speech input; and
speech-to-text converting the clean speech input.
17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:
changing the established volume level at which the white noise is produced; and
automatically adjusting a volume level of the automatically generated speech output in accordance with the changed volume level of the white noise.
18. The method of claim 16, wherein the established volume level is a configurable value and is an approximately constant volume level.
19. The method of claim 16, wherein the speech-to-text converting step is performed by a speech processing system that also generates the speech output, said speech processing system being configured to establish the volume level of the produced white noise.
20. The method of claim 16, wherein said steps of claim 16 are performed by at least one machine in accordance with at least one computer program having a plurality of code sections that are executable by the at least one machine.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A slide valve closure for the casting of a metal melt, having at least one stationary closure part (21, 42, 53) on a mould or the like, and having a slider plate (24, 54) moveable with respect to this,
characterised in that the slider plate (24, 54) and the at least one stationary closure part are braced towards one another by means of spring units (25, 45, 55) or by other means.
2. The slide valve closure according to claim 1,
characterised in that there is provided a casing frame (32) attachable to the mould (15) or the like, in which a detachable casing part (35) is fixed on which the spring units (25) are held and in which the stationary closure part (21) and the slider plate (24) can be accommodated.
3. The slide valve closure according to claim 2,
characterised in that the casing frame (32) and the casing part (35) held detachably therein have guide surfaces (33, 34) corresponding to one another on both sides, wherein the one guide surface of the casing framework (32) is held approximately displaceably in its longitudinal extension such that the casing part (35) can be braced therein or detached therefrom.
4. The slide valve closure according to claim 3,
characterised in that the guide surface of the casing framework (32) is formed on a wedge (33) projecting at a guide rod (36), wherein the guide rod (36) with the wedge (33) in the casing framework (32) is longitudinally displaceable into a position (36.2) bracing the casing part (35) or into a position (36.1) detaching the casing part (35).
5. The slide valve closure according to one of the preceding claims,
characterised in that the lower closure part (22) has a projecting collar (22) projecting towards the upper side (16) of a casting furnace or the like, which has such a height and width that the spring units (25) with their rocker arms (26) can grip the slider plate (24) on both sides from below.
6. The slide valve closure according to one of the preceding claims,
characterised in that the casing framework (32) with its underside (32) on the side facing away from the drive unit of the slider plate (24) is preferably arranged above the lower sliding surface (24) of the slider plate (24).
7. The slide valve closure according to one of the preceding claims,
characterised in that the upper and the lower closure part (21, 42) as well as the slider plate (24) are braced against one another by the spring units (45) in the casing framework (32) attached to the mould (15).
8. The slide valve closure according to claim 1,
characterised in that there is provided a casing framework (52) attached to the casting furnace (61) or the like, in which a lower stationary refractory closure part (63) is fixed while the slider plate (54) arranged slidably above the closure part (63) is held in a slider framework (56) which for its part is taken along by a slider (57), wherein the slider plate (54) is braced against the closure part (63) by spring units (55) built into the slider (57).
9. The slide valve closure according to one of the preceding claims,
characterised in that a feed line (67) and an annular groove (67) connected thereto, surrounding the mouth opening of the mould (65) or the like, for a coolant is arranged above the slider plate (54).
10. A refractory plate unit for a pressure die casting apparatus according to one of the preceding claims which consists of at least one stationary closure part (21, 22, 42, 53) and a slider plate (24, 54),
characterised in that the slider plate (24, 54) and the at least one adjacent closure part (21, 22, 42, 53) have graphite, Al titanate or zirconium as the main constituent.
11. The refractory plate unit according to claim 10,
characterised in that the slider plate (54) or the closure part (53) adjacent thereto, which form the closure surface, are each provided with through openings (53, 54) such that they are expanded in diameter upwards or downwards starting from the closure surface.
12. The refractory plate unit according to claim 10 or 11,
characterised in that the slider plate (24, 54) has graphite as its main constituent and the at least one adjacent closure part (21, 22, 42, 53) has graphite, Al titanate or zirconium as the main constituent, or vice versa.