1. A method of word recognition comprising:
receiving a given spoken representation of a given sequence of one or more words to be recognized;
in association with said given spoken representation, receiving a filtering input consisting of handwriting input;
using handwriting recognition to define a filter representing one or more filtering sequences of characters selected by said recognition as most likely corresponding to said filtering input; and
using a combination of said filter and speech recognition performed on said given spoken representation to select one or more recognition candidates, each consisting of a sequence of one or more words, selected as a function of the closeness of their match against the given spoken representation and whether or not they match one of the one or more filtering character sequences associated with said filter, where a recognition candidate matches a given filtering sequence if the candidate starts with the same sequence of one or more characters as said filtering sequence, independently of whether the candidate contains more characters than the given filtering sequence.
2. A method as in claim 1 wherein:
a plurality of selected recognition candidates are displayed on a touch screen by handwriting recognition of said handwritten representation;
the user can select to respond to said display of recognition candidates by either:
selecting a given one of the recognition candidates in said choice lists as corresponding to said handwritten representation by touching a portion of the screen associated with the given candidate; or
selecting, by input on said touch screen, to enter said filtering input either by said speech recognition or by handwriting one or more characters on said touch screen.
3. A method as in claim 1 wherein said filtering input consists of connected-character handwriting.
4. A method as in claim 3 wherein:
said filter represents a plurality of sequences of one or more characters; and
said selection of recognition candidates selects a plurality of best scoring recognition candidates, different ones of which can match different sequences of characters represented by said filter.
5. A method as in claim 4 wherein said plurality of character sequences represented by one filter and used in said selection of recognition candidates can be of different character length.
6. A method as in claim 3 wherein:
said filter represents only one sequence of one or more characters which is used for filtering; and
said selection of recognition candidates selects a plurality of best scoring recognition candidates, all of which match said one character sequence.
7. A method as in claim 1 wherein said handwriting filtering input consists of one or more unconnected separate character drawings.
8. A method as in claim 7 wherein:
said filter represents a plurality of sequences of one or more characters; and
said selection of recognition candidates selects a plurality of best scoring recognition candidates, different ones of which can match different sequences of characters represented by said filter.
9. A method as in claim 7 wherein:
said filter represents only one sequence of one or more characters which is used for filtering; and
said selection of recognition candidates selects a plurality of best scoring recognition candidates, all of which match said one character sequence.
10. A method as in claim 1:
further including:
receiving a plurality of said spoken representation, of which said given spoken representation is one, each representing a sequence of one or more words to be recognized;
using speech recognition to output a corresponding sequence of one or more words into a sequential body of text for each of said plurality of spoken representations;
responding to user input with a pointing device that touches a user selected sequence of one or more words in said body of text by selecting the touched sequence as a sequence to be corrected;
treating the sequence of words to be corrected as said given spoken representation; and then performing said:
receiving of said handwritten filtering input;
using of said handwriting recognition to define said filter; and
using of said combination of the filter and speech recognition to select one or more recognition candidates for said given spoken representation.
11. A method as in claim 1 wherein:
said receiving of handwriting filtering input includes receiving a succession of said filtering inputs in association with said spoken representation, in which each successive filtering input represents one or more additional initial characters of said spoken representation;
said using of handwriting recognition to define a filter includes performing said recognition after the receipt of each given one of said succession of filtering inputs to produce one or more incremental filter sequences, each representing one or more characters recognized as likely to correspond to the given filtering input;
said incremental filter sequences are added to said filter, concatenated to the end of filtering sequences produced by the addition of any previous incremental filtering sequences associated with the given spoken representation, to create a current filter after the receipt of each of said succession of filter inputs that represents one or more initial spellings for the spoken representation indicated by the one or more filtering inputs that have currently been received; and
said using of a combination of said filter and speech recognition to select one or more recognition candidates is performed separately in response to each of said current filters.
12. A method as in claim 11 wherein:
a plurality of said selected recognition candidates are displayed on a touch screen in response to each of a plurality of said selections made in response to said successive filtering inputs;
the user can select to respond to one of said displays of said recognition candidates by either:
selecting a given one of the recognition candidates in said choice lists as corresponding to said spoken representation by touching a portion of the screen associated with the given candidate; or
selecting to enter one of said successive filtering inputs by handwriting one or more characters on said touch screen.
13. A method as in claim 1 wherein:
a plurality of selected recognition candidates are displayed on a touch screen by speech recognition of said spoken representation;
the user can select to respond to said display of recognition candidates by either:
selecting a given one of the recognition candidates in said choice lists as corresponding to said spoken representation by touching a portion of the screen associated with the given candidate; or
selecting to enter said filtering input by handwriting one or more characters on said touch screen, which causes said handwriting recognition to define said filter and the combination of said filter and said speech recognition to select said set of one or more filtered recognition candidates.
14. A method as in claim 1 wherein:
a plurality of selected recognition candidates are displayed on a touch screen by speech recognition of said spoken representation;
the user can select to respond to said display of recognition candidates by either:
selecting a given one of the recognition candidates in said choice lists as corresponding to said spoken representation by touching a portion of the screen associated with the given candidate; or
selecting, by input on said touch screen, to enter said filtering input either by performing said handwriting of one or more characters on said touch screen or by speech recognition.
15. A method of word recognition comprising:
receiving a handwritten representation of a given sequence of one or more words to be recognized;
in association with said handwritten representation, receiving a filtering input consisting of one or more utterances representing a sequence of one or more letter identifying words;
using speech recognition to define a filter representing one or more filtering sequences of characters selected by said recognition as most likely corresponding to said filtering input; and
using a combination of said filter and handwriting recognition performed on said handwritten representation to select one or more recognition candidates, each consisting of a sequence of one or more words, selected as a function of the closeness of their match against the handwritten representation and whether or not they match one of the one or more filtering character sequences associated with said filter, where a recognition candidate matches a given filtering sequence if the candidate starts with the same sequence of one or more characters as said filtering sequence, independently of whether the candidate contains more characters than given filtering sequence.
16. A method as in claim 15 wherein:
said receiving of spoken filtering input includes receiving a succession of said filtering inputs in association with said handwritten representation, in which each successive filtering input represents one or more additional initial characters of said handwritten representation;
said using of spoken recognition to define a filter includes performing said recognition after the receipt of each given one of said succession of filtering inputs to produce one or more incremental filter sequences, each representing one or more characters recognized as likely to correspond to the given filtering input;
said incremental filter sequences are added to said filter, concatenated to the end of filtering sequences produced by the addition of any previous incremental filtering sequences associated with the given handwritten representation, to create a current filter after the receipt of each of said succession of filter inputs that represents one or more initial spellings for the handwritten representation indicated by the one or more filtering inputs that have currently been received; and
said using of a combination of said filter and handwriting recognition to select one or more recognition candidates is performed separately in response to each of said current filters.
17. A method as in claim 15 wherein:
said filter represents only one sequence of one or more characters which is used for filtering; and
said selection of recognition candidates selects a plurality of best scoring recognition candidates, all of which match said one character sequence.
18. A method as in claim 15 further including providing a user interface which enables a user to select whether the filtering input is recognized with discrete or continuous recognition.
19. A method as in claim 15 further including providing a user interface which enables a user to select whether the filtering input is recognized in a mode which favors the recognition of letter names or of non-letter-name-letter-identifying words.
20. A method as in claim 15 wherein:
the filtering input is a sequence of continuously spoken letter identifying words; and
the speech recognition is continuous speech recognition.
21. A method as in claim 15 wherein:
the filtering input is a sequence of discretely spoken letter identifying words; and
the speech recognition is discrete speech recognition.
22. A method as in claim 15 wherein:
said filter represents a plurality of sequences of characters; and
said selection of recognition candidates selects a plurality of best scoring recognition candidates, different ones of which can match different sequences of characters represented by said filter.
23. A method as in claim 22 wherein said plurality of character sequences represented by one filter and used in said selection of recognition candidates can be of different character length.
24. A method as in claim 23 wherein:
the filtering input is a sequence of continuously spoken letter names; and
the speech recognition is continuous speech recognition.
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. An air sanitization system, comprising:
a reactive oxygen species generator for generating reactive oxygen species from an oxygen-containing gas and for discharging the reactive oxygen species to a conditioned space;
a variable speed fan for directing the oxygen-containing gas to the reactive oxygen species generator at a controlled speed;
a pathogen sensor for sensing a level of airborne pathogens in the conditioned space and for generating a signal indicative of the level of pathogens sensed; and
a controller for receiving the signal from the pathogen sensor, the controller varying the speed of the variable speed fan in response to the signal to decrease a speed of the variable speed fan in response to an increase in the level of airborne pathogens sensed by the pathogen sensor.
2. The air sanitization of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to increase the speed of the variable speed fan in response to a decrease in the level of airborne pathogens sensed by the pathogen sensor.
3. The air sanitization of claim 1, wherein the reactive oxygen species generator is a dielectric barrier discharge plasma generator.
4. The air sanitization of claim 1, wherein the reactive oxygen species include at least ozone and vapor phase hydrogen peroxide, and wherein the ozone and vapor phase hydrogen peroxide are delivered to the conditioned space to provide surface and air decontamination.
5. The air sanitization of claim 4, further comprising a diffusion apparatus attached to an outlet of the reactive oxygen species generator, wherein the diffusion apparatus distributes the reactive oxygen species to the conditioned space.
6. The air sanitization of claim 1, wherein the controller further comprises a user input receiving function including a maximum air sanitization option and a maximum surface decontamination option, wherein the controller decreases the fan speed when the maximum air sanitization option is selected and increases the fan speed when the maximum surface decontamination option is selected.
7. The air sanitization of claim 1, wherein the controller decreases the fan speed by a predetermined percentage when the level of airborne pathogens is greater than or equal to a predetermined maximum level of airborne pathogens.
8. The air sanitization of claim 7, wherein the controller increases the fan speed by another predetermined percentage when the pathogen level is less than or equal to a predetermined minimum level of airborne pathogens.
9. The air sanitization of claim 8, wherein the controller delays a reading of the pathogen sensor by a predetermined time period each time the fan speed is changed.
10. A method of controlling an air sanitization system for sanitizing a conditioned space, the method comprising:
generating short-lived reactive oxygen species in the reaction chamber;
generating long-lived reactive oxygen species in the reaction chamber;
passing a pathogen-containing gas through the reaction chamber to remove at least a portion of pathogens from the pathogen-containing gas;
distributing the long-lived reactive oxygen species to the conditioned space and onto surfaces in the conditioned space;
sensing an amount of pathogens in the pathogen-containing gas;
increasing a dwell time of a portion of the pathogen-containing gas within the reaction chamber in response to an increase in the amount of pathogens sensed to increase exposure of the pathogens to the short-lived reactive oxygen species; and
decreasing the dwell time of a portion of the pathogen-containing gas within the reaction chamber in response to a decrease in the amount of pathogens to increase distribution of long-lived reactive oxygen species to the conditioned space for sanitizing the surfaces.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein generating long-lived reactive oxygen species includes generating at least one of ozone and vapor phase hydrogen peroxide.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein generating short-lived reactive oxygen species includes generating at least one of hydroxide and nitric oxide.
13. The method of claim 10, wherein increasing the dwell time includes decreasing a fan speed to decrease an amount of gas passing through the reaction chamber.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein decreasing the dwell time includes increasing the fan speed to increase the amount of gas passing through the reaction chamber.
15. The method of claim 13, wherein increasing the dwell time includes decreasing the fan speed in increments of a predetermined percentage.
16. The method of claim 14, wherein increasing the dwell time includes decreasing the fan speed in increments of a first predetermined percentage, and decreasing the dwell time includes increasing the fan speed in increments of a second predetermined percentage.
17. The method of claim 16, further comprising waiting a predetermined time period between increasing or decreasing the fan speed and sensing the amount of pathogens in the pathogen-containing gas.
18. The method of claim 10, wherein distributing the long-lived reactive oxygen species includes directing the long-lived reactive oxygen species from an outlet of the reaction chamber to a diffuser.
19. The method of claim 10, further comprising:
increasing the dwell time of a portion of air within the reaction chamber in response to a user input requesting air sanitization; and
decreasing the dwell time of a portion of air within the reaction chamber in response to a user input requesting surface decontamination in the conditioned space.
20. An air sanitization system, comprising:
a reactive oxygen species generator for generating reactive oxygen species from an oxygen-containing gas and for discharging the reactive oxygen species to a conditioned space;
a variable speed fan for directing the oxygen-containing gas to the reactive oxygen species generator at a controlled speed;
a pathogen sensor for sensing a level of airborne pathogens in the conditioned space and for generating a signal indicative of the level of pathogens sensed; and
a controller for receiving the signal from the pathogen sensor, the controller varying the speed of the variable speed fan in response to the signal to decrease a speed of the variable speed fan in response to an increase in the level of airborne pathogens sensed by the pathogen sensor and increase the speed of the variable speed fan in response to a decrease in the level of airborne pathogens sensed by the pathogen sensor;
wherein the controller decreases the fan speed by a predetermined percentage when the level of airborne pathogens is greater than or equal to a predetermined maximum level of airborne pathogens;
wherein the controller increases the fan speed by another predetermined percentage when the pathogen level is less than or equal to a predetermined minimum level of airborne pathogens; and
wherein the reactive oxygen species include at least ozone and vapor phase hydrogen peroxide, and wherein the ozone and vapor phase hydrogen peroxide are delivered to the conditioned space to provide surface and air decontamination.