1. A power supply distribution system, comprising:
a power supply for supplying electric power;
a plurality of power outlets to which electronic devices that receive supply of electric power from the power supply are connectable;
a plurality of power detection circuits for measuring an amount of electric power used through each of the plurality of power outlets;
a power amount arithmetic circuit for determining a supply amount of the electric power to the plurality of power outlets based on information from the plurality of power detection circuits; and
a plurality of power limiting circuits for limiting the supply amount of the electric power to the plurality of power outlets, wherein:
the power amount arithmetic circuit:
calculates a threshold of the amount of electric power used to be supplied to each of the power outlets based on a maximum supply amount of the electric power from the power supply and a number of the power outlets; and
limits the amount of electric power used to be supplied to at least one of the plurality of power outlets, whose amount of electric power measured by the power detection circuits is more than the threshold, to not more than the threshold by using the power limiting circuit,
when the amount of electric power used through one or more of the power outlets exceeds the threshold, the power amount arithmetic circuit calculates:
a first total sum that is a total sum of the amount of electric power used through the one or more of the power outlets supplying electric power exceeding the threshold, and
a second total sum that is a total sum of an amount of electric power calculated by multiplying a number of the power outlets whose amount of electric power used is not more than the threshold by the threshold; and
when a sum of the first total sum and the second total sum exceeds the maximum supply amount of the electric power from the power supply, the power amount arithmetic circuit allows electric power to be used to be supplied to the power outlet, but limits the amount of electric power used to be supplied to the power outlet, whose amount of electric power used is more than the threshold, to not more than the threshold by using the power limiting circuit.
2. The power supply distribution system according to claim 1,
wherein the power amount arithmetic circuit further comprises a storage unit, and when the amount of electric power used through one or more power outlets exceeds the threshold, the storage unit stores these one or more power outlets, and
when the sum of the first total sum and the second total sum exceeds the maximum supply amount of the electric power from the power supply, the power amount arithmetic circuit allows electric power to be used to be supplied to, but limits an amount of electric power used to be supplied to one of the power outlets, the amount of electric power running through this one power outlet exceeds the threshold lastly among the power outlets, to not more than the threshold by using the power limiting circuit, while the electric power is available at power outlets to which electronic devices are connected.
3. The power supply distribution system according to claim 1,
wherein each of the power outlets further comprises an allowable power display unit, and
the allowable power display unit displays a usable amount of electric power for each of the power outlets, which is calculated by the power amount arithmetic circuit.
4. The power supply distribution system according to claim 3,
wherein the allowable power display unit displays a warning when a supply amount of electric power from each of the power outlets exceeds the threshold.
5. The power supply distribution system according to claim 4, wherein the display of the warning is done by lighting or blinking LED (Light Emitting Diode).
6. A power supply distribution method, comprising:
supplying electric power from power supply to a plurality of power outlets;
measuring an amount of electric power used through each of the plurality of power outlets;
determining a supply amount of the electric power to the plurality of power outlets based on the measured amount of the electric power used;
calculating a threshold of the amount of electric power used to be supplied to each of the power outlets based on a maximum supply amount of the electric power from the power supply and a number of the power outlets;
limiting the electric power to be supplied to at least one of the plurality of power outlets, whose amount of electric power measured by the power detection circuits is more than the threshold, to not more than the threshold;
detecting that the amount of electric power used through one or more of the power outlets exceeds the threshold;
calculating a first total sum that is a total sum of the amount of electric power used through the one or more of the power outlets supplying the electric power exceeding the threshold;
calculating a second total sum that is a total sum of an amount of electric power by multiplying a number of the power outlets, whose amount of electric power used is not more than the threshold, by the threshold; and
when a sum of the first total sum and the second total sum exceeds the maximum supply amount of the electric power from the power supply, allowing electric power to be used to be supplied to the power outlet, but limiting the amount of electric power used to be supplied to the power outlet, whose amount of electric power used is more than the threshold, to not more than the threshold by using the power limiting circuit.
7. The power supply distribution method according to claim 6, comprising:
when the amount of electric power used through one or more of the power outlets exceeds the threshold, storing the power outlets exceeding the threshold; and
when the sum of the first total sum and the second total sum exceeds the maximum supply amount of the electric power from the power supply, allowing electric power to be used to be supplied to the power outlet, but limiting an amount of electric power used to be supplied to one of the power outlets, the amount of electric power running through this one power outlet exceeds the threshold lastly among the power outlets, to not more than the threshold by using the power limiting circuit, while the electric power is available at power outlets to which electronic devices are connected.
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 method for selecting speech units in a concatenative speech synthesizer comprising:
obtaining a representative measure indicative of a difference between HMM acoustic models of speech units
selecting a speech unit to be used by a speech synthesizer based on the representative measure.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining the representative measure comprises obtaining the representative measure indicative of the difference between acoustic models of speech units in different phonetic context.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein the phonetic context is based on a preceding speech unit.
4. The method of claim 2 wherein the phonetic context is based on a succeeding speech unit.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining the representative measure comprises obtaining the representative measure indicative of the difference between acoustic models of speech units in different prosodic context.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the prosodic context is based on position of the speech unit in a word.
7. The method of claim 5 wherein the prosodic context is based on position of the speech unit in a syllable of a word.
8. The method of claim 5 wherein the prosodic context is based on accent status of the speech unit in a word.
9. The method of claim 5 wherein the prosodic context is based on position of a word in a phrase.
10. The method of claim 5 wherein the prosodic context is based on emphasis status of a word in a phrase.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining the representative measure indicative of the difference between HMM acoustic models of speech units is based on calculating Kullback-Leibler Divergence between the HMM acoustic models.
12. A method of synthesizing speech comprising:
receiving input text and parsing the input text to obtain phonetic one or both prosodic information;
generating context vectors based on the phonetic one or both prosodic information;
generating cost measures corresponding to the context vectors, the cost measures being based on a comparison of acoustic HMM models of speech units;
selecting one or more speech units based on the context vectors and corresponding cost measures when speech units having desired context vectors are not available;
concatenating the one or more selected speech units to form a synthesized speech output representing the input text.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein the cost measures are indicative of a comparison based on phonetic features.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the cost measures are indicative of a comparison based on prosodic features.
15. The method of claim 12 wherein the cost measures are indicative of a comparison based on prosodic features.
16. The method of claim 12 wherein the cost measures are speech unit dependent.
17. A speech synthesizer comprising:
a store of speech units indicative of at least one of different phonetic and different prosodic contexts;
a set of cost measures associated with the speech units of the store of speech units, the cost measures being indicative of a comparison of acoustic HMM models of speech units of said at least one of different phonetic and different prosodic contexts; and
a speech unit locator configured to select speech units to be used for forming synthesized speech based on accessing the set of cost measures when desired speech units of at least one of phonetic and prosodic contexts are not available in the store of speech units.
18. The synthesizer of claim 17 wherein each cost measure of the set of cost measures comprise a Kullback-Leibler Divergence between the HMM acoustic models.
19. The synthesizer of claim 17 wherein the set of cost measures are speech unit dependent.
20. The synthesizer of claim 18 wherein a sub-set of cost measures pertain to a plurality of speech units.